OMB Releases Report on Costs and Benefits of Implementing Executive Order on Services for LEP Persons

IMMIGRANTS & PUBLIC BENEFITS

Language Access

OMB releases report on costs and benefits of implementing executive order on services for LEP persons
Immigrants' Rights Update, May 14, 2002, Web Edition

On Mar. 14, 2002, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released its report on the costs and benefits of implementing an executive order intended to ensure limited English-proficient (LEP) persons' access to public services. The report makes a number of positive statements about the benefits of language access services. However, it conflates the costs of implementing Executive Order 13166 with costs related to compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Title VI prohibits recipients of federal funds from discriminating on the basis of race, color, or national origin. Discrimination on the basis of national origin includes the failure to provide LEP persons with meaningful access to federally funded activities and programs.

The E.O. requires all federal agencies to develop internal plans, and agencies that provide federal financial assistance to develop guidance to recipients, on providing LEP persons meaningful access to their programs and services. (65 Fed. Reg. 50121-50122 (August 16, 2000); see "DOJ Issues Policy Guidance on Discrimination against Persons with Limited English Proficiency," Immigrants' Rights Update, p. 12.) The report was issued pursuant to a provision that was inserted in the congressional appropriations bill for 2002 (P.L. 107-67) by congressional critics of the E.O. The provision directed the OMB to assess the total costs and benefits of implementing the E.O. and to submit a report to the House Appropriations Committee.

The OMB published a request for information to assist in the preparation of its report. The unusual request asked for anecdotal, as well as statistical, information, and the majority of responses it elicited was submitted by advocates and state governments. In addition, several groups of advocates and provider organizations met with OMB staff, at OMB's invitation, for discussion of their responses. Many advocates urged the agency to distinguish between expenses due to Title VI obligations from any additional costs of implementing the E.O. Unfortunately, the OMB's reports fails to make this distinction.

While acknowledging the difficulty of quantifying the costs of providing language assistance, the report attempts to estimate them in four areas: transportation (departments of motor vehicles), benefits (food stamps), immigration, and healthcare. The authors estimated that the cost of providing language assistance to a LEP person ranged from .5 percent (of the total cost of a healthcare encounter) to 1.7 percent (of the overall cost of DMV services) and 15 percent (of food stamps). The authors estimated that the cost across all government services was probably closer to 1 or 2 percent. The report also emphasized that these were estimates based on overall costs, which did not take into consideration language assistance currently provided. It concluded that the actual cost of "implementing the E.O." may be substantially less.

The report does not shy away from discussing benefits as well as costs. The authors acknowledge the "multitude of benefits" that result from LEP persons' improved access to programs and services. These include avoidance of medical errors, reductions in emergency room use, improved household access to food and nutrition, and improved compliance with immigration rules and restrictions. Improved access to services, the report points out, benefits both LEP individuals and the government agencies that serve them.

The OMB's report is available on-line at www.whitehouse.gov/omb.