Letter to the Hon. Mike Pence, Vice President of the United States, the Hon. Steve Mnuchin, Sec. of the Treasury, and Charles P. Retting, Commissioner, Internal Revenue Service - Representative Adriano Espaillat Leads Democratic Members to Demand Spanish and Multi-Language Access to IRS Payment Portal

Letter

In response to the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) launch of the new Economic Impact Payments (EIP) web portal and associated literature, we have heard concerns from our constituents regarding the portal's inaccessibility to non-English speakers. In order to ensure all Americans have access to this vital assistance, we urge you to make all pertinent information and application forms related to such payments available in Spanish as well as the 18 most commonly used languages America, at a minimum.

In communities around the country, we are witnessing illustrations of this pandemic's overwhelming impact on poor, immigrant and non-English speaking communities. Considering that the IRS, Census, and other government agencies often disseminate information in multiple languages, we are confident in the federal government's ability to promptly translate all information related to EIPs into the most widely spoken languages and we urge the IRS to lean on its partners in other federal agencies to accomplish this urgent rectification.

As with all information relating to COVID-19 currently being provided by federal, state and local agencies, universal access to and understanding of EIPs is important to ensuring the equitable distribution of resources to help the American people weather and eventually recover from this pandemic. We again urge you to promptly provide the American public all information related to EIPs in the 18 most commonly used languages, according to the Census Bureau.

We thank you for your attention to this important matter.