By David A. Díaz, Legislative Media
Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN, Texas — Valuable legislative information in Spanish that could help millions of Texas residents understand the key workings and major actions of state lawmakers could be added to the websites of the House of Representatives under administrative action being requested by Rep. Terry Canales, (D-Edinburg.)
Nearly a third of all Texans speak Spanish and 10 percent of all Texans do not speak English. The significant number of Spanish-speaking citizens in Texas has caused an increased demand in equal access to state resources.
Seeking to reach out to people in the state, nation, and world whose primary language is Spanish, Canales is proposing that the home page of each House member’s official website have Spanish language translations, similar to the website of Texas state senators and of other major state agencies.
Canales believes such an improvement could be authorized by Rep. Charlie Geren, R-River Oaks, who serves as chairman of the House Committee on Administration. The House Committee on Administration has many duties, including jurisdiction over the administrative operation of the House of Representatives.
Geren’s House District 99 – located in Tarrant County – has a significant percentage of Mexican Americans, who make up almost 24 percent of his constituents, according to the Texas Legislative Council, which is the legal arm of the House 
of Representatives.
In his request to Geren, Canales laid out his contentions that the House panel can take such action.
“Though I filed legislation (during the spring) to urge the Texas House to allow more Texans access to the legislative process, I do not believe legislation is necessary to accomplish this goal. Ten years ago, the Texas Senate Administration Committee decided, without a change in law, to provide more information in Spanish on their website,” Canales reported. “We should follow their example by updating the Texas House website to meet the needs of all Texans. I look forward to working with you in the interim in the hopes of accomplishing this goal.
Canales added, “The Spanish language component to the House of Representatives’ website is a matter of demographics and fairness.
“It is both practical and beneficial to offer legislative information in both English and Spanish. As we seek to modernize our government and keep pace with the 21st century, I believe we must allow legislative information to be accessible in English and Spanish,” said the House District 40 lawmaker, who is fluent in English and Spanish. “The success of government depends on effectively communicating with the public and offering nondiscriminatory, accurate information.”
His idea received unanimous support last spring from the House Committee on Technology, which recommended that Canales’ proposal, contained in his House Bill 940, be approved by the House of Representatives. But as with hundreds of other legislative measures, time ran out on the bill before the Legislature could take final action.
Canales noted the Texas Senate for the past 12 years has maintained and improved its Spanish-language version of its Internet web site, including the individual official websites of each state senator. That site is available online at www.senate.state.tx.us/Senado.htm.
The Texas House of Representatives should also be a leader in encouraging more citizens to better understand and participate in the legislative process, he envisioned.
“In this era, when countless people get their information through the Internet, it is incumbent upon us that millions more Texans have equal access to the Legislature’s digital information,” Canales said. “This would be a step forward towards a more inclusive Texas, a more well-informed Texas – a 21st century Texas.”
Texas residents are increasingly becoming more dependent on the Internet to address their needs.
As another example, the state’s website, www.TexasOnline.com, is making great strides to serve the public’s needs in cost effective ways. TexasOnline provides a one-stop accessible site to services in areas that range from renewal of occupational licenses and driver’s licenses, to easy access to agency information. This website is vital for people in and out of Texas to access state government information and services, and is available in Spanish and a number of other languages.
The House of Representatives should also break down language barriers, the lawmaker said.
“If we allow legislative information to be offered in Spanish, we are including millions of people who will then have better access to information,” Canales reported. “With more information, we have better-educated citizens who can make better-informed decisions.”
According to a 2011 Census survey, almost 30 percent of Texans speak Spanish. Of that figure, more than 42 percent of those Texans speak English less than very well, he said.
Also, the official websites for the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts and the Texas Attorney General have Spanish-language versions for constituents, and many of the other major state agencies have key information in Spanish as well.
The use of Spanish content in Texas state agency websites was prompted in 2005 by SB 213, authored by then-Sen. Eliott Shapleigh, D-El Paso, and Rep. Trey Martínez Fischer, D-San Antonio.
According to the bill analysis, SB 213 directed state agencies that have direct and constant contact with Spanish-speaking constituents to create a Spanish version of their vital information and forms, so all Texans can equally have access to state information and resources.
SB 213 placed the responsibility of translation of vital information and forms used by agencies on the state agency
Addressing the demand of the large number of Spanish-speaking Texans and the need to access state resources means encouraging and pushing state agencies to work to translate vital information and necessary forms.
In 2005, five state agencies had the entire contents of their sites available in Spanish and another 10 published some of their content in Spanish. SB 213 required that all state agencies follow federal guidelines requiring that state agencies that have direct and constant contact with Spanish-speaking constituents make vital information and their forms available in Spanish.
Two years later, the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a federal agency under the management of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, released updated information, based on the 2000 Census, that detailed the languages spoken in U.S. and Texas.
According to the CDC, English and Spanish, or predominantly Spanish, are spoken considerably by Texas residents at their homes, including in the major metropolitan regions not located along the Texas-Mexico border:
- Harris County (Houston): 898,885;
- Dallas County (Dallas): 539,570;
- Bexar County (San Antonio): 517,885;
- Tarrant County (Ft. Worth): 218,615;
- Travis County (Austin): 168,285; and
- Nueces County (Corpus Christi): 118,745.
These figures do not include residents in those counties who spoke English only.
Counties bordering Mexico, as expected, reported large percentages of their residents who spoke English and Spanish, or predominantly Spanish.
