A note from the NOTIS Advocacy Committee

Hello court interpreters!

Last year, a bill was presented in the State House of Representatives (HB 2006) to update the Washington Court Interpreter law, RCW 2.43. This bill expands language access in the courts to ensure all court users can fully communicate regardless of the language they use. Unfortunately, the bill died in committee. 

It has now been revived as HB 1174. It is in committee and needs to be moved out of the policy committee into the fiscal committee. We need the court interpreter community to express its support for this bill! A summary is linked here for your review. Please note that the deadline to comment is February 21.

There is a simple and quick process by which you can express your support online:

1. Go to this website: https://leg.wa.gov/bills-meetings-and-session/
   
   
   
   
2. Near the top, where it says “Search for a Bill,” type in “1174“ and click on “Search.“ This will take you to this page, where you will click on the link that we’ve marked.
   
   
   
   
3. Fill out your address, and click “Verify District.” Click next to all of your legislators’ names. You can let them know if you’d like them to respond to your comment or not. Then complete the section with your name and contact information. 
4. In Step 3, you’ll click on “support” (we hope!). Your comment can be simply something like, “I am an interpreter. Please support this bill,” if you wish, or you can write more. Then click “Comment” at the bottom. 

The important thing is that our legislators see that their constituents are interested in this bill and that they should pay attention to it.

Please consider doing this at your earliest convenience! The deadline for comments is February 21.

Thank you so much,
The NOTIS Advocacy Committee