BILL ANALYSIS
AB 611
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Date of Hearing: May 6, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Kevin De Leon, Chair
AB 611 (Fong) - As Amended: April 15, 2009
Policy Committee: Governmental
Organization Vote: 16 - 1
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill requires the California Emergency Management Agency
(Cal EMA) to take measures to help people with limited English
proficiency (LEP) prepare for emergencies and understand
information conveyed during emergencies, such as utilizing
bilingual persons in public contact positions, and coordinating
with organizations that represent the needs of LEP persons in
order to disseminate guidance to local and regional governmental
entities. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires the Secretary of Cal EMA to take into consideration
the multiple languages and needs of populations with limited
English proficiency during emergency preparedness planning,
response, and recovery, including when developing committee
recommendations within the Standardized Emergency Management
System (SEMS).
2)States that documents drafted to help emergency responders
understand the needs of the LEP population do not have to be
translated.
3)States that no changes are required to existing documents
until the time they are normally updated or revised.
4)Requires the secretary to work in collaboration with ethnic
media and ethnic community-based organizations in developing
communication strategies so that alert and warning information
sent to these entities can be more broadly disseminated to LEP
populations.
5)Requires the secretary to use a registry of qualified
AB 611
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bilingual persons to provide interpretation services in the
case of an emergency.
6)Requires the secretary to incorporate the needs of populations
with limited English proficiency in the curricula and training
materials for all critical emergency training exercises.
FISCAL EFFECT
Costs associated with this legislation would be minor and
absorbable within existing resources.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . There are over six million limited English
proficient residents in California. Their limited English
ability can pose a threat to their safety in the event of a
disaster. This bill requires that emergency preparedness
efforts and disaster response plans take into account the
needs of this population.
2)Related Legislation . In 2008, AB 1930 (Torrico) would have
required the Office of Emergency Services (OES) to consider
the needs of people with limited English proficiency in
creating emergency and disaster response plans. That bill was
held on the Senate Appropriations Committee suspense file.
In 2007, AB 615 (Torrico), a substantially similar bill to AB
1930 (Torrico), was held on this committee's suspense file.
Similar to this bill, SB 1451 (Kehoe; Chapter 600, Statutes of
2006) required OES to ensure representation of the disabled
community on all pertinent Standardized Emergency Management
System Specialist Committees.
Analysis Prepared by : Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916)
319-2081