Senator Chang asked and was granted unanimous consent to make a statement and moved that the statement be printed in the Journal.
The motion prevailed.
Senator Chang’s statement is as follows:
I am excited today to talk about Senate Bill No. 382 and, with permission, Senate Bill No. 383 as well, bills that will help facilitate access to state services for individuals with limited English proficiency. As the daughter of immigrants, I recognize the importance of helping those who have faced the difficulties of navigating life in the United States when English is not your first language. One in ten Michiganders over the age of 5 speak another language than English, and Michigan is becoming a more and more diverse state that includes a large immigrant population. Immigrants are responsible for Michigan’s net population growth over the last three decades, having grown 96 percent over that time frame, and Census numbers show clearly that it’s actually international migration that has offset the loss of population due to domestic outmigration and more deaths than births.
Regardless of how well an individual speaks English, they deserve equal access to the same services that fluent English speakers do. Whether it’s accessing DHHS benefits, interacting with the unemployment agency, or navigating housing and resources, every Michigander should have access to our state government and be able to understand and communicate with state employees. By making our state agencies more accessible, we will be helping the number of immigrant-owned businesses grow as well and keep the ones currently here open.
We worked closely with several immigrant-serving organizations as well as the Office of Global Michigan on the development of these bills and are very grateful for the work the Office of Global Michigan has been doing and for their new language access coordinator doing this work. Under these bills, state departments will be required to take reasonable steps to provide equal language access services and that can mean oral language services through face-to-face, in-house or telephonic oral language services, having available sufficient oral language services based on the data about the people served by that agency, translating vital documents, and designating a language access liaison.
Several other states already have laws or executive orders requiring language access plans for state agencies, and I believe it’s time for Michigan to join them. Regardless of someone’s English language capabilities, everyone deserves fair and equitable access to resources from our state and we cannot fall behind on this if we hope to continue to attract more people to our state and grow our population.
The following bill was read a third time:
Senate Bill No. 383, entitled
A bill to provide for the statewide coordination of equal language access to state services by individuals with limited English proficiency; to provide for the powers and duties of certain state governmental officers and entities; and to establish a process for submitting complaints and obtaining remedies for lack of equal language access and for denials of equal access based on one’s national origin.
The question being on the passage of the bill,
The bill was passed, a majority of the members serving voting therefor, as follows: