Senators Blasted for Vacillating Over English Language Provisions
by Chad Groening
May 23, 2006
(AgapePress) - - An English language advocate says more than two dozen members of the U.S. Senate are trying to have it both ways when it comes to legislation designed to strengthen English as the official language of the United States. That is why he has issued what he calls the "Weathervane Awards."Jim Boulet is executive director of the advocacy group English First. He says 25 senators have voted for an amendment introduced by Senator Jim Inhofe that supports English as America's official language.
However, Boulet says those same senators have sent mixed signals to their constituencies by then turning around and voting for an amendment sponsored by Colorado's Ken Salazar, supporting President Bill Clinton's "Mandatory Translation Edict" or Executive Order 13166. The English language advocate feels the two measures are diametrically opposed.
Executive Order 13166 requires that recipients of federal funds to provide free translation and interpreter services for their non-English speaking clients. According to the edict, these federal funding recipients -- a large class that includes doctors participating in Medicaid or Medicare as well as state and local government agencies -- may be guilty of violating the ban on "national origin" discrimination in Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act if they fail to comply.
"One thing that keeps the Clinton executive order from being enforced more strictly than it is, is that both sides know it's not really a law like a congressional law," Boulet points out. "But if [proponents] can get Congress to pass something approving of the executive order," he says, "then it can be seen as a law."
Now, the English First official notes, it is up to a congressional Conference Committee to decide which of the English amendments goes into the final immigration package. "The conferees are, at best, weak on standing up for our borders, standing up for English," he says, "so we're going to need the House conferees to stand very strong."
Congress must be firm on a number of points in order to pass meaningful immigration reform legislation, Boulet insists. He says lawmakers have to be prepared to "walk away" from the immigration bill, particularly if it fails to include both border enforcement and English language provisions.
Also, the English language advocate contends, lawmakers should reject any sort of guest worker plan concessions. "Any reference to guest worker amnesty is just unacceptable," he says.
Salazar's amendment is designed to put the official stamp of approval on Clinton Executive Order 13166, Boulet asserts. He believes the senators who have voted in favor of both the Inhofe bill and the Salazar amendment are trying to have it both ways, which is why he is conferring the "Weathervane Award" on each of them.
Chad Groening, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
