Substitute House Bill 2221, which directs the Office of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing within the Department of Social and Health Services to establish a workgroup dedicated to finding solutions to address shortage of qualified and certified American Sign Language interpreters and Protactile interpreters, was adopted and passed out of the Human Services, Youth, & Learning Committee on Friday, January 26, with the following amendments.  

Proposed Substitute Bill 2221 (H-2814.1 1/24) compared to the original bill: 

• Changes references to “protactile sign language” to “protactile.”  
• Changes references to “deaf and blind” to “deafblind” and a reference to “deaf and disabled” to “deafdisabled.”  
• Adds two representatives of higher education institutions to the work group: one from a four year state university and one from a community or technical college. 
• Increases the number of work group members from community-based organizations representing the deafblind community from one to two and indicates that at least one must be from an organization serving a culturally diverse population.  

• Modifies the list of historically marginalized populations that must be prioritized in work group recruitment to add immigrants and refugees, transgender and nonbinary individuals, members of the LGBTQIA community, individuals with multiple disabilities, and other underserved populations.  
• Requires the work group to determine strategies and resources needed to increase the availability of trilingual interpreters who are proficient in American Sign Language, English, and another language.  
• Specifies that the work group must identify methods of increasing the pay rate for interpreters hired by state agencies and contractors, rather than agencies and contractors in general.  
• Removes the emergency clause. 
  
  

The amendments update language to reflect culturally and linguistically appropriate terms and expands the workgroup to be more inclusive and representative of the communities and institutions impact. Requirements and specifications for workgroup foci are added, and a time-sensitive determination is removed.  

The bill is moved forward out of committee to the House Appropriations Committee, which considers the operating budget bill and related legislation; budget processes; and fiscal issues. The committee also considers bills with operating budget fiscal impacts.  

Further information below: 

1. Bill Analysis 

1. Bill Text 

1. Bill History 

1. Video: January 19 Hearing  

1. Video: January 26 Vote 
   
   

ASL version of this update will be available next week,