Comprehensive State Communications.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION 2025
H 1
HOUSE BILL 730

Short Title: Comprehensive State Communications. (Public)
Sponsors: Representatives Lopez, Cervania, Liu, and Turner (Primary Sponsors).
For a complete list of sponsors, refer to the North Carolina General Assembly web site.
Referred to: Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House
April 3, 2025
*H730-v-1*
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1
AN ACT TO REQUIRE TH AT STATE -PROVIDED IN FORMATION ABOUT STAT E 2
SERVICES IS AVAILABL E IN THE FIVE MOST C OMMON NON -ENGLISH 3
LANGUAGES SPOKEN AT HOME BY RESIDENTS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 4
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts: 5
SECTION 1.(a) Article 1 of Chapter 143B of the General Statutes is amended by 6
adding a new section to read: 7
"§ 143B-28.2. Language accessibility. 8
Each principal department under this Chapter and Chapter 143A of the General Statutes shall, 9
at the time of publishi ng any information regarding State services or resources under the 10
department's authority, submit the language contained in the publication to the Department of 11
Administration for translation pursuant to G.S. 143B-370.2. Once translated and returned to the 12
principal department, the principal departm ent shall publish the translated information in the 13
same form at, whether electronic or print, in which the principal department publishes this 14
information in English." 15
SECTION 1.(b) Article 9 of Chapter 143B of the General Statutes is amended by 16
adding a new section to read: 17
"§ 143B-370.2. Language accessibility. 18
(a) The Department of Administration, through a competitive procurement process, shall 19
contract with a certified translation service to translate information regarding State services or 20
resources under each principal department's authority, as submitted to the Department pursuant 21
to G.S. 143B-28.2. The contract shall ensure that l anguage co ntained in the information 22
submitted is translated into the five most common non -English languages spoken in the homes 23
of residents of North Carolina, according to the most recently available United States Census 24
Bureau, American Community Survey. 25
(b) The Department of Administration shall return translated information to the 26
submitting principal department for publication as soon as practicable . To that end, t he 27
Department shall develop a procedure to actively oversee the timely translation of submitte d 28
information and a time line for each translation's completion. 29
(c) If one of the five most common non -English languages under subsection (a) of this 30
section is designated by the United States C ensus Bureau, American Community Survey , as 31
"Chinese," the information s hall be translated into the Mandarin language. A member of the 32
public may request from the Department of Administration that specific information be translated 33
into the Cantonese language, and the Department shall facilitate the translation and provide the 34
information in Cantonese upon request. 35
General Assembly Of North Carolina Session 2025
Page 2 House Bill 730-First Edition
(d) After consultation with the Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental 1
Operations, the Department may convert contractual translation services to permanent State 2
translator positions if the Director determines that it is more cost‑effective to do so." 3
SECTION 2. There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of 4
Administration the sum of five million four hundred eighty -seven thousand seven hundred 5
sixty-seven dollars ($5,487,767) in recurring funds for the 2025 -2026 fiscal year to implement 6
the requirements of this act. 7
SECTION 3. Section 2 of this act becomes effective July 1, 2025. The remainder of 8
this act is effective when it becomes law, and the provision of translat ed information applies 9
beginning January 1, 2027. 10