BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
AB 1376 (Hernandez) - Administrative Adjudication: Language
Assistance
Amended: April 30, 2013 Policy Vote: L&IR 4-0
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: June 24, 2013
Consultant: Robert Ingenito
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: AB 1376 would eliminate the responsibility of the
Department of Human Resources (CalHR) to establish, administer,
maintain, and publish a list of certified administrative hearing
interpreters and medical examination interpreters, but would
require CalHR to maintain and publish a list of certified
interpreters through the end of 2018. Additionally, this bill
would transfer the responsibility to designate the languages for
which certification is required from CalHR to the Department of
Industrial Relations (DIR). Finally, the bill would establish
standards for state agencies' use of other than certified
interpreters.
Fiscal Impact: DIR estimates costs (all special funds) between
$50,000 and $100,000 to contract for a study to determine which
languages require certified interpreters beyond the eight
languages identified in current law.
By removing CalHR's mandatory responsibility for certifying
interpreters and leaving DIR as the only agency with existing
authority, this bill would move responsibility for interpreter
certification to DIR to the extent that new certifications
continue. DIR estimates costs of $10,000 to $30,000 to develop
an interpreting exam for each additional language and utilizing
estimates from a similar bill introduced in a prior session,
cites costs of $190,000 in the first year, and $120,000 ongoing,
to operate the certification program.
Finally, this bill would result in a revenue loss of roughly
$60,000 (General Fund) for five years from the stoppage of
collecting a $100 fee from certified interpreters on the current
list, somewhat offset by minor savings related to the
AB 1376 (Hernandez)
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elimination of fee-collection costs.
Background: Current law requires state agencies that are
authorized to conduct administrative hearings to provide an
interpreter for hearings and medical examinations to a party or
witness that is not proficient in English. Eight languages are
currently designated for certified interpreters: Spanish,
Tagalog, Arabic, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and
Vietnamese.
Prior to the consolidation of the State Personnel Board (SPB)
and the Department of Personnel Administration into CalHR, SPB
was charged with (1) providing testing for administrative
hearing and medical examination interpreters, and (2)
maintaining and publishing a list of interpreters to be utilized
by state departments when needed. The interpreter certification
examination has reportedly not been offered since 2006 (due to
budget constraints) and the department has not certified new
additions to the list since that time. Previously certified
interpreters have been able to continue to renew their
registration to remain on the list.
Proposed Law: This bill would repeal CalHR's responsibility to
update its list of certified interpreters and would establish
standards for state agencies' use of other than certified
interpreters. Specifically, this bill would:
Eliminate CalHR'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 additional years.
Eliminate annual fees (currently $100) for certification
and renewal of certification by interpreters.
Transfer from CalHR to the Division of Workers'
Compensation (DWC) (within DIR) the responsibility for
determining the languages for which certification of
interpreters is to be established.
Provide that interpreters required for administrative
hearings or medical examinations be qualified, rather than
certified, stipulates that certified interpreters are
AB 1376 (Hernandez)
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presumptively qualified, and provides criteria for
provisionally qualifying a non-certified interpreter if a
certified interpreter is unavailable for a hearing or
medical examination.
Staff Comments: By allowing for a process to provisionally
qualify an interpreter, this bill intends to ensure a greater
number of those in need of translation services will receive
them in the absence of new certification examinations under
existing law.
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 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.
The SPB's inability to update the list of certified interpreters
became a serious problem for the state's workers' compensation
program. Chapter 363, Statutes of 2012 (SB 863, De Leon), the
major workers' compensation reform bill, also granted authority
to the DWC to generate its own list of certified interpreters.