Washington State Legislature Moves to Unify Language Access Guidelines

It’s been a full year since US President Donald Trump enacted an executive order (EO) declaring English the only official language of the United States. That decision, and the Trump administration’s subsequent moves to reduce government language services, have led to a whirlwind of language access legislation proposed at the federal and state levels.

Many of the proposed bills break along party lines, as legislation aimed at preserving language access tends to be brought by Democrats. Conversely, Republican-led bills more often favor promoting English or proposing alternatives to traditional language services, like AI translation.

Recently, a new language access bill has been quickly moving through the Washington State legislature. The bill’s full title is “An act relating to providing language accessible public programs, activities, and services conducted, operated, or administered by state agencies” (SHB 2475). 

The bill was originally co-sponsored by 18 Democrats in the Washington State House of Representatives, led by Rep. Lillian Ortiz-Self.

First introduced in the House on January 14, 2026, the bill went through multiple committees and was reintroduced as a Substitute House Bill (SHB) before passing the House on February 16, 2026. At the time of writing, SHB 2475 has been introduced before the state Senate and passed through two Senate committees.

What Does the Bill Say?

Broadly, the bill breaks down into two parts: the first presents the authors’ perspective on language access, setting up their rationale for the bill, and the second describes the specific mandates the bill proposes.

In the first section, the text opens by framing multilingualism as a foundational American tradition rather than a recent hurdle. Jumping to the present, the text asserts that Washington’s economy benefits from multilingualism and would be negatively impacted if language access were not provided.

The text further supports the need for robust language access by pointing out that the population of state residents living in households that speak languages other than English soared from only 6.9% in 1980 to 21.1% in 2022.

Notably, however, the bill states that it would not create new language access mandates or new legally protected classes. Instead, the bill aims to affirm existing protections and facilitate clarity and consistency between state agencies regarding their language access practices.

If passed, the operative portion of the bill would create three new requirements. 

First, by December 1, 2027, the Office of Equity would be required to develop uniform guidelines for all state agencies regarding “consistent delivery” of language access. The guidelines would have to include content focused on both spoken and signed languages, and “all modalities of communication,” including in-person, written, digital, over-the-phone (OTP), virtual, and recorded communications. These new guidelines would be subject to review every three years.

Under this bill, the Office of Equity would also have to develop these guidelines in collaboration with “interested parties” such as state agencies themselves, and the organizations created by existing collective bargaining law to represent “language access providers.”

Second, the Office of Equity would be required to collaborate with these “interested parties” to write a proposal addressing what the bill calls “the statewide shortages of qualified spoken and sign language interpreters and translators.” Interestingly, the proposal would be required to emphasize rural communities and low-resource languages, referred to in the text as “languages of lesser diffusion.”

Finally, if the bill passes, state agencies would have until June 2028 to report to the Office of Equity and the Office of Financial Management regarding how they will implement the new guidelines, including a timeline and discussion of what additional resources are needed.

In a February 20, 2026 hearing before the Senate State Government, Tribal Affairs & Elections Committee, Patrick Stickney stated on behalf of the Office of Equity, “we believe that increasing clarity and consistency in how state agencies provide language accessible programs, activities and service is an important element of a customer-focused and responsive state government.”

He further stated that the bill is “fully implementable by the Office of Equity,” and highlighted that state agencies would “have discretion and lead time in implementing the guidelines.” 

As of March 3, 2026, the bill’s online status lists it as “placed on second reading by Rules Committee.”