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Ninety-two percent of the world’s countries have at least one official language. (2002 World Almanac, 2001 U.S. Bureau of the Census Estimates. In 2000, 11.9 million U.S. residents lived in linguistically isolated households, meaning that no one living in the household spoke English at home or spoke it “very well.” And, there are 322 languages spoken at home in the United States. (Census 2000)
Consider that it costs $1.86 million annually to prepare written translations for food stamp recipients nationwide. The cost of oral translations is $21 million nationally per year. (U.S. Office of Management and Budget, Report to Congress: Assessment of Total Benefits and Costs of Implementing Executive Order No. 13166: Improving Access to Services for Person with Limited English Proficiency, March 14, 2002). Nearly two-in-three foreign born adults say that the United States should expect all immigrants to learn English. (Public Agenda Survey of 1,002 foreign born adults, 2002). The U.S. Department of Education found that those with limited English proficiency are less likely to be employed, less likely to be employed for a continuous period, tend to work in the least desirable sectors and earn less than those that speak English. (U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Educational Statistics; English Literacy and Language Minorities in the United States, August 2001).
These type facts brings us to the following article written in August 2011 by Suzanne Bibby, Director of Government Relations, English Only (nonpartisan, non-profit organization).
One day after the debt ceiling compromise was reached in Congress, the English Language Unity Act of 2011 (H.R. 997) received its 100th cosponsor. H.R. 997 would make English the official language of the United States. [Note the bill now has 106 sponsors.*]
The burdensome costs associated with printing, verbal, written, and website translation services, and bureaucratic know-how fall squarely on American taxpayers. Schools, libraries, hospitals, unemployment offices, fire and police departments, public health clinics, and countless private agencies—many of which receive federal funds—are struggling to keep their doors open because they are forced to provide multilingual services in any foreign language requested or else risk a “discrimination” lawsuit from the Department of Justice. Even the 31 states with official English laws of their own still cannot escape this hefty fiscal burden. Federal unfunded mandates which require local jurisdictions to provide multilingual voter ballots for federal elections make it all but impossible for states to enforce their official English policies and rein in their unnecessary and wasteful spending.
Although the Government Accounting Office (GAO) has refused to provide the amount of taxpayer dollars that fund multilingual services each year, we do have some idea of the annual price tag. In 2009, the Fraser Institute released a study that revealed that Canada, a country with roughly one-tenth the population of the United States, spent between $1.6 billion and $1.8 billion in 2006 to provide taxpayer-funded government services in French as well as English, just two languages. In the U.S., over 300 languages are spoken, so we can extrapolate our cost to be ten times Canada’s. Subsidizing immigrants and non-English-speaking Americans who avoid learning English is not the responsibility of American taxpayers.
If Congress can make good on its pledge to be more fiscally responsible, H.R. 997 is a bill worth advancing because it will save billions of taxpayer dollars every year. Translations and interpreters for people applying for taxpayer-funded federal assistance would no longer be provided at taxpayers’ expense. For example, if a patient covered by Medicaid needed an interpreter for an office visit, under an official English law, it would then be up to the patient, the hospital, medical facility, or physician involved to decide how the service would be covered.
With the ever-changing language demographics of the U.S., the fate of America’s fiscal and cultural health depends on H.R. 997 becoming law.
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* To view the present list of co-sponsors of H.R. 997, click here. Then consider contacting your legislature who is not on the list of sponsors. It is unthinkable that the Congressional representatives elected in states with English as their official language have not signed on as a co-sponsor of this bill.
Tags: Pro English, ProEnglish, English, English Only, USG, United States, reducing the deficit, reducing the debt, access to opportunity, H.R. 997 To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
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