HB 4444

relating to the authority of a public library to provide
multilingual resources for emerging communities.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1.  Subtitle C, Title 10, Local Government Code, is
amended by adding Chapter 338 to read as follows:
Sec. 338.001.  MULTILINGUAL RESOURCES.  (a)  In this
(1)  "Emerging community" means a group of people who
share a common ethnicity and have a positive population growth rate
(2)  "Population growth rate" means the rate of
population growth between the last two federal decennial censuses.
(b)  A public library may use any money available to the
library, including state money, to provide multilingual library
services and resources for the three fastest growing, non-English-
or Spanish-speaking, emerging communities in the county in which
(c)  A public library that provides multilingual library
services and resources under this section may:
(1)  provide easily accessible online or digital
multilingual library services and resources; and
(2)  implement a plan to communicate the availability
of multilingual library services and resources to the relevant
SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution.  If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect September 1, 2025.