Urge Congress to defend English Your Congressmen Current Legislation State Profiles
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Senate approves "national English" In an historic vote this spring the U.S. Senate voted to recognize English as the "national language." The vote took place on an amendment sponsored by Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) to the Senate immigration bill. The amendment passed by a vote of 62-35 (see below for a list of Senators who voted for it) but not before Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) viciously attacked it on the Senate floor. "While the intent may not be there, I really believe this amendment
is racist," Reid said. "I think it's directed basically at people
who speak Spanish," said Reid, just minutes before eleven of his
Democratic colleagues voted for the amendment. Click here to read a copy of the amendment text. Senator Inhofe was the driving force behind the measure's passage. "The need for official English appears in our newspapers every day - injuries in the workplace, lawsuits over mistranslation in hospitals, people who are unable to support their families - all because they can't speak English," said Inhofe, speaking on the floor of the Senate. "Making English the official language would . . . help immigrants assimilate, which is vitally important to becoming an American and preserving our rich heritage." Political Cover Moments after the Inhofe vote, Senator Ken Salazar (D-CO) offered a competing amendment that recognized English as the nation's "common and unifying" language - a meaningless statement in the view of most analysts. The Salazar amendment also had an exception for Executive Order 13166, the mandate signed by President Clinton that requires government agencies and federal funds recipients to provide translations and interpreters for non-English speaking clients. The Salazar amendment was intended to provide political cover for Senators who voted against Senator Inhofe's amendment, but who didn't want to be on record voting against English. The amendment passed 58-39 with the help of twelve Republicans who had also voted for the Inhofe amendment. Inhofe Praised "We commend Senator Inhofe for his courage and strong leadership in working to preserve our nation's unity in the English language," said Bob Park, ProEnglish board chairman. "If it wasn't for his tenacity in the face of strong opposition, we never would have had a Senate vote on English." There is still a long way to go to get an official English bill through Congress. There is no official English provision in the House-passed version of the immigration bill and a lot of speculation that the House and Senate will not be able to agree on a compromise between their starkly different approaches to immigration policy with the Senate bill containing amnesty and the House bill putting enforcement first. "Nevertheless the Senate vote is a huge step forward in the battle to preserve our nation's linguistic unity and shows the support is there to pass official English." Senator Hayakawa would be pleased," Park added, referring to the late Senator S.I. Hayakawa, the California Republican of Japanese descent widely acknowledged as the founding father of the official English movement. These are the 62 Senators voted for Sen. Inhofe's amendment: These 39 Senators voted for Sen. Inhofe's amendment (listed by state):
These 23 Senators voted for Sen. Inhofe's amendment to make English the
national language, but then also voted for Sen. Salazar's amendment, which
would have the opposite effect (14 Republicans and 9 Democrats):
These 35 Senators voted against Sen. Inhofe's amendment and for Sen.
Salazar's amendment (34 Democrats and 1 "Independent"): These 3 Senators did not participate in either vote: Click here for ProEnglish's press
release on the Senate votes. |
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