H.R. 3238 — HABLA Act of 2025

This section requires each federal agency to prepare and begin implementing, within 120 days of enactment, a plan to improve access to its federally conducted programs and activities for eligible limited English proficient (LEP) persons. The plans must be consistent with Department of Justice LEP guidance and outline steps to ensure meaningful access by LEP persons, with agencies submitting copies to DOJ (as the central repository) and publishing final plans on agency websites in a manner accessible to LEP individuals.

This section directs each federal agency providing financial assistance to develop tailored guidance for recipients on complying with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964's prohibition against national origin discrimination affecting limited English proficient (LEP) persons. (As background, Title VI bars such discrimination in federally assisted programs and activities; the required guidance must conform to the Department of Justice's LEP Guidance (67 Fed. Reg. 41455) by detailing its application to recipients' services, served populations, and related factors.) Agencies with existing guidance must review it and their programs for compliance needs (if deemed consistent by the Department of Justice); the Department of Justice must consult on development, review submissions within 120 days of the Act's effective date, and agencies must publish approved guidance in the Federal Register for public comment.

This section requires agencies, in carrying out this Act, to provide stakeholders—including Limited English Proficiency (LEP) persons and their representative organizations, recipients, and other appropriate individuals or entities—at least 60 days to provide input on developing approaches to meaningful access by LEP persons. Agencies must evaluate the particular needs of LEP persons served by the agency and its recipients and the burdens of compliance on the agency and recipients, ensuring such approaches are practical, effective, fiscally responsible, responsive to each agency's circumstances, and readily implementable.

This section establishes definitions for terms used in the Act, including “LEP person” as a person whose first language is not English and who chooses to receive assistance in a language other than English, and “eligible LEP person” as an LEP person legally entitled to a particular government service provided by an agency.