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Bush, Congress consider reversing order aimed at accommodating non-English speakers

WASHINGTON
(March 22, 2001 8:52 p.m. EST) - An order by former-President Clinton telling federal agencies to do more to accommodate Americans who can't speak English is under assault.

Seven months after agencies were told to make plans for interpreters and literature in multiple languages, President Bush and Congress are deciding whether to reverse the mandate of then-President Clinton.

The debate revolves around the financial and societal cost of providing special services to the country's growing number of immigrants. One Republican lawmaker said if the mandate is allowed to stand, Americans could see dramatic changes, including traffic signs in several languages.

One of Bush's first actions after taking office in January was blocking a variety of proposed rules, including one agency's plans for complying with Clinton's order to help people with "limited English proficiency."

Rep. Bob Stump said in a letter last week to colleagues that "the United States should encourage all individuals united by one government to join in a single language," not pay for multilingual services.

"I'm very discouraged, even saddened," said Gabriela Lemus, director of policy for the League of United Latin American Citizens. "What is the message? We're not including people?"

Lemus said Bush and other officials have been using inclusive messages, and "my fear now is this is just all lip service - we're being taken for a ride."

In Denver, Vicenta Herrera, who interprets for her mother who moved to America from Mexico and speaks little English, said leaders in Washington should be sensitive.

"They're all high and mighty. They don't need to speak any other language," she said.

Stump, a Republican, represents Arizona, where voters decided last fall to end bilingual education. In 1988, voters there made English the state's official language and required its use in most government transactions, but the courts struck the measure down.

Stump said as part of Clinton's directive, the Justice Department was having documents translated into 30 languages and that the Department of Transportation was considering whether traffic signs now in English would have to be replaced.

By abolishing the order, we "will not only alleviate a costly mandate on recipients of federal funds, such as state and local governments, but also protect our great nation from further language barriers," Stump wrote.

More than 30 House members, mostly Republicans, have joined Stump in supporting the repeal, including Rep. Dan Burton of Indiana, chairman of the Government Reform Committee, which would consider the policy change.

"I'm concerned about the price tag, but I'm mostly concerned about the principle," said repeal supporter Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif. "Putting out crutches for people who do not speak English well is not a way to encourage people to perfect their English."

Bush blocked guidelines in January proposed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, headed by Mel Martinez, who was born in Cuba and spoke no English when he arrived in America as a refugee at age 15. A spokesman said the agency was awaiting direction from President Bush on what to do.

A Bush spokesman, Scott McClellan, said Thursday the president had not halted policy changes in agencies that last year began following Clinton's order. He said Bush has not reviewed the Clinton order or the congressional plan.

New census figures show America is becoming more diverse. The Hispanic population, for example, has increased almost 60 percent in the past decade to 35 million.

Kush Bambrah, attorney for the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium, said that agency changes would not have to be exorbitantly expensive, as some lawmakers fear.

Bambrah said regardless of the fate of the Clinton rule, non-English speaking Americans are entitled to help. America's leaders, he said, have a choice between "disenfranchising these populations or trying to embrace them and what this country was founded on."

The bill is HR 969