Committee hears language-access bill proposing uniform guidelines and interpreter workforce action

The committee considered House Bill 2,475, which would confirm state policy favoring language-accessible public programs and require the Office of Equity to develop uniform guidelines for agencies by 12/01/2027 and to propose ways to address the statewide shortage of qualified spoken and sign language interpreters.

Jake Garcia (policy director, Latino Community Fund of Washington State) supported the bill, saying more than one in five Washington households speak a language other than English and that coordinated guidelines would improve service delivery.

Katie Durkin (Washington Federation of State Employees), representing Interpreters United Local 1671, emphasized the technical skill and certification required for interpreting and told the committee the state’s pool of credentialed interpreters fell from 2,825 in 2019 to about 1,766 last year. She also cited about 250,000 interpreter requests a year in the Medicaid system alone. "We have both a legal and a moral obligation to provide high quality language access services," Durkin said.

Patrick Stickney (Office of Equity) described practical, implementable steps agencies could take and confirmed agencies had been asked to submit fiscal notes; staff noted a fiscal note had been requested but was not yet available at the time of the hearing.

The committee closed testimony on the bill after the panel’s remarks; no committee vote appears in the transcript.