Congresswomen Urge FCC to Prioritize Language Accessibility in Hurricane Resiliency Planning

Congresswomen Nanette Barragan, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and Sylvia Garcia led 24 of their colleagues in signing a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) urging them to prioritize language accessibility in hurricane resiliency planning. The letter, signed by representatives from linguistically diverse and hurricane-prone districts, called on the FCC to include language access experts and advocates for communities with limited English proficiency (LEP) in the agency's upcoming Hurricane Season Resiliency Roundtable.

Key Takeaways:

• The letter, signed by 24 representatives, urges the FCC to prioritize language accessibility in hurricane resiliency planning to ensure effective communication with LEP communities during emergencies.
• Nearly 68 million US residents speak a language other than English at home, and over 25 million are classified as LEP, highlighting the need for multilingual emergency communications.
• The lawmakers cited several examples of inadequate communication during recent disasters, including Hurricane Beryl in Houston, which left significant portions of the city's LEP community unprepared due to a lack of language accessibility.
• The letter emphasizes the importance of language access in disaster management, noting that it must be embedded into every phase of disaster preparedness and response, including preparedness, response, and recovery.
• The signers of the letter are representative of linguistically diverse and hurricane-prone districts, including Florida, Texas, and California, highlighting the critical nature of language accessibility in these regions.
• The lawmakers noted that inadequate communication can have serious consequences, including disrupting economic recovery and threatening the lives of LEP individuals.
• The letter urges the FCC to prioritize making public safety communications multilingual, culturally competent, and accessible to all, including Wireless Emergency Alerts, Emergency Alert System messages, and 9-1-1 accessibility standards.
• Language access experts and advocates, as well as representatives of immigrant, refugee, and Indigenous communities, are crucial to identifying systemic weaknesses and enhancing disaster protocols.

Statistics:

• Nearly 68 million US residents speak a language other than English at home. [1]
• Over 25 million US residents are classified as LEP. [1]
• Harris County, where Houston is located, scores a 100/100 or "very high" for hurricane risk on the Federal Emergency Management Agency's National Risk Index. [4]
• Florida boasts over 4.8 million foreign-born residents who speak more than 130 languages. [5]
• More than 400,000 households in Florida speak Haitian Creole as their primary language. [6]
• Tens of thousands of households in Florida primarily speak Portuguese, French, Chinese, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Arabic, German, Russian, Italian, or another language. [6]
• Over 1/3 of rural, agricultural counties in north central Florida lack in-house interpreters or multilingual social media outreach. [7]
• Immigrants in Florida's workforce contribute an estimated $179 billion to the state economy annually in personal income. [8]
• Immigrants represent approximately 17% of the nation's labor force and contribute over $2 trillion annually to the United States' gross domestic product. [8]

Sources:

[1] The full text of the letter can be found below

[2] Houston demographics, city data

[3] Hurricane Beryl, Houston, 2022

[4] FEMA National Risk Index

[5] Florida demographics, US Census Bureau

[6] Florida language demographics, US Census Bureau

[7] Rural, agricultural counties in Florida

[8] Immigrant contributions to state economies, across US