I am in support of the proposal to remove the CCC from initial licensure requirement for both audiology and SLP. There are a growing number of audiologists who elect not to get the CCCs when they graduate with their doctorate degree as the university and their internship placement meet the requirements to be a competent audiologist. And those who do get their CCCs because their universities tell them they need them to practice, will often drop them due to the high cost to keep them and the higher cost to renew them if you let the membership lapse. Once you obtain your CCCs initially you are just paying a yearly "membership" and it's not an organization that is requiring continued testing for competency past their initial Praxis test. So the annual fee we pay to be a member doesn't mean that we are more or less competent to do our job than people who don't have their CCCs or who had them at once but dropped them. 

There is a shortage of audiologists in Virginia right now and this would also help bring others in state if it was easier to obtain their license. I talked to one audiologist recently who has been practicing in another state for years and is moving to VA but is having to jump through a bunch of hoops to get her license because she dropped her CCCs. I don't see any negative issues with this passing.