BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  AB 1376
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   May 8, 2013

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                  Mike Gatto, Chair

                  AB 1376 (Hernandez) - As Amended:  April 30, 2013 

          Policy Committee:                               
          JudiciaryVote:10-0
                        Insurance                             13-0

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program:  
          No     Reimbursable:               

           SUMMARY  

          This bill repeals the State Personnel Board's (SPB's)  
          responsibility to update its list of certified interpreters and  
          establishes standards for state agencies' use of other than  
          certified interpreters. Specifically, this bill:  

          1)Eliminates the SPB's obligation to establish and administer  
            updated lists of certified administrative hearing and medical  
            examination interpreters, and provides that the lists as of  
            December 31, 2013 shall be preserved and published for five  
            years by the Department of Human Resources (CalHR), consistent  
            with an executive branch reorganization last year.

          2)Eliminates annual fees (currently $100) for certification and  
            renewal of certification by interpreters.


          3)Transfers-from CalHR to the Division of Workers' Compensation  
            (DWC) within the Department of Industrial Relations-the  
            responsibility for determining the languages for which  
            certification of interpreters is to be established.


          4)Provides that interpreters required for administrative  
            hearings or medical examinations be qualified, rather than  
            certified, stipulates that certified interpreters are  
            presumptively qualified, and provides criteria for  
            provisionally qualifying a non-certified interpreter if a  
            certified interpreter is unavailable for a hearing or medical  
            examination.








                                                                  AB 1376
                                                                  Page  2


           FISCAL EFFECT  

          1)Minor annual General Fund revenue loss of around $60,000 for  
            five years from discontinuance of fee collection from  
            certified reporters on the current SPB list, partially offset  
            by minor administrative savings from no longer collecting the  
            fee.

          2)The DWC could incur minor costs to determine whether  
            interpreters are needed in additional languages beyond those  
            previously designated by the SPB. Costs to develop a  
            certification test for any additional languages would range  
            from $10,000 to $30,000 per language.

            The DWC asserts that it would incur additional significant  
            costs to certify interpreters, which would be required because  
            CalHR will no longer update its existing list, and will not  
            publish this list after five year. The DWC has already been  
            provided the authority to certify interpreters through  
            legislation enacted last year (see below). Moreover, this bill  
            allows for the use of qualified, in lieu of certified,  
            interpreters.

           COMMENTS  

           1)Background  . According to the author, prior to the  
            consolidation of the SPB and the Department of Personnel  
            Administration into the new California Department of Human  
            Resources (CalHR), SPB was charged with providing testing for  
            administrative hearing and medical examination interpreters as  
            well as maintaining and publishing a list of interpreters to  
            be utilized by the departments when needed. The interpreter  
            certification examination has apparently not been offered  
            since 2006, and the administration apparently does not intend  
            to offer it again.  Those who were on the list as of the last  
            certification in 2006 (630 interpreters) have remained on the  
            list since then by paying a $100 annual renewal fee.

           2)Purpose  . Under this bill, the SPB list as it exists at the end  
            of this year would be preserved by CalHR for five years, and  
            be available to agencies who wish to make use of it. The bill  
            would relieve CalHR of the obligation to maintain an updated  
            list, thus diminishing its value over time, and the bill  
            provides that CalHR need not maintain the list at all after  








                                                                  AB 1376
                                                                  Page  3

            five years. CalHR would also no longer collect the annual $100  
            certification fee from those on the list. During this  
            five-year period, and afterward, agencies could alternatively  
            make use of interpreters certified by the courts as well as  
            those certified by the DWC. The bill also provides guidance to  
            state agencies on the criteria to use in the event that a  
            certified interpreter is not available.

           3)DWC  . The SPB's inability to update the list of certified  
            interpreters, apparently due to budgetary considerations,  
            became a serious problem for the state's workers' compensation  
            program. SB 863 (De Leon)/Chapter 363 of 2012-the major  
            workers' compensation reform bill-also granted authority to  
            the DWC to generate its own list of certified interpreters.

            Because CalHR is formally seeking to end its role in  
            certifying interpreters and updating the list of certified  
            interpreters, certain functions must be performed by another  
            agency. AB 1376 delegates to the DWC the responsibility to  
            determine what languages must have certified interpreters.

           Analysis Prepared by  :    Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081