Hunter
02/17/20
A bill intended to do away with the state Board of Sign Language Interpreters and Transliterators in the Iowa Senate is expected to be tabled after pushback from members of the deaf community.
In a letter to the subcommittee introducing the bill, advocates for the deaf community said that they would lose safeguards that maintain quality interpreters in the state. States that don’t have interpreter laws have alternate schools and training programs that Iowa lacks. The subcommittee also learned that the number of states with interpreter regulation is growing, not shrinking.
The Daily Iowan talked to Republican Senator Jason Schultz, who told them his party is in the process of cutting back on over-regulation, and attempting to determine which measures need to be retained and should be removed. Schultz said, “…government should not be doing things that the private sector can, and we are doing these exercises to see where we can pull government back.”
Democratic senator Claire Celsi of the subcommittee told the paper that after everyone spoke, it was clear that the board is needed and shouldn’t be eliminated.