Sponsors (31)
The bill significantly expands and standardizes language access for LEP individuals—improving accountability and reducing communication harms—but does so at added cost, administrative burden, and with implementation and legal risks for agencies and taxpayers.
Individuals with limited English proficiency (LEP), including many immigrants, will gain more timely access to vital federal documents and services in their language, reducing miscommunication and barriers to benefits.
LEP individuals will be able to file complaints and receive agency responses within 60 days, improving accountability and speeding resolution of access problems.
Federal agencies will be required to plan, monitor, and report on language access with measurable indicators, which should improve consistency and quality of services across federal programs.
Taxpayers and government budgets will face additional costs for translating documents, hiring and assessing bilingual staff, interpretation services, IT upgrades, and oversight.
Smaller agencies and federal staff may be strained by a short one-year compliance deadline, risking rushed implementations, lower-quality translations, or delayed rollouts.
Increased administrative requirements for planning, monitoring, public comment, reporting, and certification may divert agency resources away from direct program delivery.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires federal agencies to ensure meaningful access for people with limited English proficiency by translating vital documents, adding multilingual IT, providing interpretation, training staff, and creating complaint/reporting systems.
Introduced January 22, 2026 by Grace Meng · Last progress January 22, 2026
Requires federal agencies to provide meaningful language access for people with limited English proficiency within one year. Agencies must translate vital documents into frequently encountered and dominant U.S. languages, add multilingual features to digital systems, provide oral and remote interpretation (or use qualified bilingual staff when appropriate), post multilingual notices, train public-facing employees, adopt agency-specific language access plans, and respond to complaints; the Department of Justice must maintain a public complaints system and publish an annual report.