ELPAC Report June 2001

The ELPAC Report June 2001

Bush Cave In On Multilingual Government

Last August, then-President Clinton, winging his way toward the Democratic Convention in Los Angeles, issued Executive Order 13166. EO13166 officially made the federal government multilingual, by requiring all government agencies, grantees and contractors to provide instant translation services upon demand. Now it appears that the Bush Administration will not repeal that new policy.

EO 13166 was drafted by anti-English forces in the Clinton White House and Justice Department, including former Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Bill Lann Lee. The new rule, for the first time, said that a person's choice of language was the same as the person's national origin, and was thus protected by federal anti-discrimination law.

This equation of language and national origin has been rejected many times by federal courts over the last thirty years. But the Clinton Administration relied on a recent federal lawsuit in which Alabama was forced to give drivers license tests in languages other than English.

That decision, known as Sandoval, was the first to equate language and national origin. After President Clinton issued EO 13166, however, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out the Sandoval decision (related story this issue).

Under EO 13166, for example, a state's Official English declaration could be considered discriminatory if the State refused to provide services in languages other than English. For months, pro-English groups have beseeched the Bush Administration to repeal EO 13166.

Cong. Bob Stump (R-AZ), Chairman of the powerful House Armed Services Committee, introduced legislation to repeal EO 13166, and gathered several dozen co-sponsors. Nevertheless, top Bush aides told ELPAC Chairman Barnaby Zall privately that they felt "boxed in" politically by Clinton's action. Although they acknowledged that EO 13166 was undermined by the Supreme Court's rejection of the Sandoval case, they also did not want to anger powerful Hispanic interest groups by revoking the order.

The answer finally came on June 3. Scott McClellan, White House Deputy Press Secretary, told the Hearst Newspapers that President Bush will not overturn EO 13166. "We want to make sure that federal agencies are providing people meaningful access to government services" McClellan said. "The President intends to keep the order in place."