It would establish English as the official language of Federal, State, and local governments throughout the United States.

Since voting by citizens is the method of choosing the representatives of these governments, and is the first step in the official process of governing, it would prevent the printing of ballots in foreign languages.

It would permit bilingual education where it could be clearly demonstrated that the primary objective and practical result is the teaching of English to students as rapidly as possible and not of cultural maintenance. It would not affect the use of total immersion in English, which is a proven method of teaching English.

It would discourage discrimination and exploitation by making it clear to immigrant parents and children that learning English is indispensible for full participation in the American society and economy, and by speeding them into the mainstream of our society and economy as rapidly as possible.

Mr. Chairman, national unity is not a subject to be taken lightly, for without it, we would lose much of the strength which sets us apart as a great nation. I believe that history has taught us that one of the vital ingredients for obtaining national unity is a commonly accepted language. This has been confirmed by our own past experience in this country, and has been proven by other countries that have been divided and weakened by their internal arguments centering around language differences.

National unity does not require that each person think and act like everybody else. However, it does require that there be some common threads that run throughout our society and hold us together. One of these threads is our common belief and support of a democratic form of government, and the right of every person to fully participate in it. Unfortunately, this right of full participation means very little if each individual does not possess the means of exercising it. This participation requires the ability to obtain information and to communicate our beliefs and concerns to others. Undoubtedly, this process is greatly hindered without the existence of a commonly accepted and used language.

In essence, a policy of bilingualism segregates minorities from the mainstream of our politics, economy and society. They are being pushed aside into their own communities and denied the tools with which to break out. I have always opposed segregation of any kind, and by not assuring that every person in this country can speak and understand English, we are still practicing segregation. It was wrong when we segregated blacks because of color, and it is just as wrong when we create a system which segregates any group of people by language.

As Americans, we are a unique people, and one of the things that makes us uniquely American is our common language-English. My proposed constitutional amendment would assure that everyone in this country can fully take part in the American dream, and that future generations also will have this privilege.

I thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[Material submitted for the record follows:]

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I

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD- SENATE

By Mr. SYMMS (for himself, Mr.
BURDICK, Mr. SYMMS, Mr. RAN-
DOLPH, and Mr. ZORINSKY):

7 S.J. Res. 167. Joint resolution pro-
posing an amendinent to the Constitu-
tion of the United States with respect
to the English language; to the Com-
mittee on the Judiciary.

CONSITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO MAKE ENGLISH
THE OFFICIAL LANGCAGE OF THE UNITED STATES
Mr. HUDDLESTON. Mr. President,
the remarks I am about to make will
be readily understood by my distin-
guished colleagues in the Congress.
They will be understood by my con-
stituents in Kentucky. They will be
understood by the journalists in the
press gallery, and by most of their
readers across the country.

No simultaneous interpreters will be
needed for those in this Chamber, and
no translators will be needed for most
of those who will be reading these
words in the CONGRESSIONAL RECORD.

In order to guarantee that this cur. rent state of affairs endures, as it has for over 200 years. I am introducing today a constitutional amendment to make English the official language of the United States.

The amendment addresses something so basic, so very fundamental to our sense of identity as Americans. that some, who are in full agreement with the objectives of this amendment, will nevertheless question the necessity for it. So widely held is the assumption that English already is our national language, that the notion of stating this in our national charter may seem like restating the obvious. However, I can assure my colleagues that this is not the case and that the need for a constitutional amendment grows stronger every day.

Almost alone among the world's very large and populous nations, the United States enjoys the blessings of one pri. mary language, spoken and understood by most of its citizens. The pre. viously unquestioned acceptance of this language by immigrants from every linguistic and cultural background has enabled us to come together as one people. It has allowed us to discuss our differences, to argue about our problems and to compromise on solutions. It has allowed us to develop a stable and cohesive society that is the envy of many fractured ones, without imposing any strict standards of homogeneity, or even bothering to designate the language, which is ours by custom, as the Nation's official one.

September 21, 1983

As a nation of immigrants, our great strength has been drawn from our ability to assimilate vast numbers of people from many different cultures and ethnic groups into a nation of people that can work together with cooperation and understanding. This process was often referred to as the melting pot and in the past it has been seen as an almost magical concept that helped to make the United States the greatest nation on Earth.

But for the last 15 years, we have ex. perienced a growing resistance to the acceptance of our historic language. an antagonistic questioning of the melting pot philosophy that has tradi tionally helped speed newcomers into the American mainstream.

Initially, the demands to make things easier for the newcomers seemed modest enough; and a gener. ous people, appreciative of cultural di versity, was willing to make some allowances. For example, the English language requirements for naturalization were removed for elderly immi. grants living here for 20 years who were still unable to meet them; and the use of a child's home language in the school setting was encouraged, in a well-intentioned attempt to soften the pain of adjustment from the home to the English-speaking society that school represents.

However, the demands have sharply escalated, and so has the tone in which they are presented. Bilingual education has gradually lost its role as a transitional way of teaching English. and now mandates a bicultural component. This mandate has been primarily shaped and promoted by the Federal Government. The unfortunate result is that thousands of immigrant and nonimmigrant children are languish. ing in near-permanent bilingual/bicul. tural programs, kept in a state of prolonged confusion suspended between two worlds, and not understanding what is expected of them. They and their parents are given false hopes that their cultural traditions can be fully maintained in this country, and that the mastery of English is not so important, after all.

This change in attitude was aptly de scribed by Theordore H. White in his book "America in Search of Itself" wherein he stated:

Some Hispanics have, however, made a dernard tiever voiced by Immigrants before: that the United States, in effect, officially recognize itself as a bicultural, bilingual nation... (They) demand that the United States become a bilingual country, with all children entitled to be taught in the lan guage of their heritage, at public expense. No better hymn to the American tradition has ever been written than The Education of Hyman Kaplan," by Leo Rosten, which describes with tears and laughter the efforts of the earlier immigrants to learn the language of the country in which they wished to live. In New York today, forty years later. Hispanic entitlement has cre ated a college. Hostos Commur.ity Collegesupported by public taxes which is official. ly bilingual, half its students receive instruc

September 21, 1983.

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD -SENATE

tion primarily in Spanish, as they strive to escape from the subculture of the Spanish ghetto. Bilingualism is an awkward wordbut it has torn apart communities from Canada to Brittany, from Belgium to India. It expresses not a sense of tolerance but a demand for divisions.

This misdirected public policy of bi

lingualism has been created primarily

by the Federal Government, at the insistence of special interest groups, and

In essence, we have gone far beyond
providing a necessary service on a tem
porary basis; and, we are now engaged
in actively encouraging the use of bi-
lingual ballots, even though in many
cases they may not be needed. The
isdom of this policy is clearly lacking
when you consider that the vast bulk

of political debate, whether it is in the
printed press or the electronic media,
is conducted in English. By failing to
provide a positive incentive for voting
citizens to learn English, we are actu-
ally denying them full participation in
the political process. Instead, we are
making them dependent upon a few

S 12641

Board notices in 32 different languages. The non-English materials which I have received are in a stack that is about 3 feet high, and we are adding to it almost daily. However, even when all the responses are in we still will not have a complete picture of the use of official, non-English pub

lications. Many of the States are only sending a few samples of what they produce, and I am told that if copies of all bilingual educational materials were sent we could fill a large room. While distribution of these materials may be seen as providing just another

it continues today because elected offi: cials do no want to run the risk of taking a position that could, in some way, offend these groups. An example of how far this special interest influ ence reaches can be seen by President interpreters or go-betweens for infor. goverment service, it can also be seen

Reagan's reversal on the issue. At the beginning of his administration he at tempted to kill the bilingual program, now he is embracing the concept.

Over the last few years the Federal Government has spent approximately $1 billion on the bilingual education program and this year alone it cost $139 million. What we have bought with this money is a program that strives to keep separate cultural identities rather than a program that strives to teach English. It is a program which ignores the basic fact that in order to learn another language the student must talk, read and use that language on a regular basis.

The failure of bilingual education programs to teach children how to speak English in the shortest time has been documented by a study done at the U.S. Department of Education and by the recent report of the Twentieth Century Fund Task Force on Federal Elementary and Secondary Education Policy. The latter report stated unequivocally that:

The Task Force recommends that the federal government clearly state that the most important objective of elementary and secondary education in the United States is the development of literacy in the English

language...

The Task Force recommends that federal funds now going to the bilingual program be used to teach non-English speaking children how to speak, read, and write English.

Even though the bilingual education program has received failing marks by many reputable educators, it still sur vives because it is a political issue rather than an educational issue. What this means is that we will continue jo finance an expensive bilingual program that does more to preserve cultural identities than it does to teach children to speak English.

In the area of voting rights we have also formulated a national policy that encourages voting citizens not to learn to speak English. The Voting Rights Act. which was reauthorized in 1982. requires bilingual ballots if more than 5 percent of the citizens of voting age in a jurisdiction are members of specified language minority groups and the illiteracy rate is higher than the na tional rete. As a result bilingual ballots are required by Federal law to be provided in 30 States-even if there is no demand for them.

mation as to how they should vote. Al-
though this process helps to preserve
minority voting blocks, it seriously un-
dercuts the democratic concept that
every voting individual should be as
fully informed as possible about the
issues and the candidates.

In many parts of the country foreign
language ballots are under attack. In
San Francisco, a local initiative peti-
tion has been filed urging that local
governments be allowed to print bal.
lots in english only. In that area bal
lots are now printed in English, Span-
ish, Chinese and because of the new
census figures. Tagalog ballots will
probably be printed in the future.

There are other less prominent provisions of Federal law which now require the use of foreign languages. For example, 28 US.C. 1827 requires the Director of the Administrative Office of the US. courts to establish a program for the use of foreign language interpreters in Federal civil and criminal proceedings for parties whose primary language is other than English; 42 US.C. 254 requires the use of foreign language personnel in connection with federally funded migrant and community health centers; and 42 U.S.C. 4577 requires the use of foreign language personnel in the alcohol abuse and treatment programs. Although I can understand that this kind of assistance is helpful, the fact that it must be legislated strongly in dicates that we are failing miserably in our efforts to teach immigrants and many of our native born how to speak,

read and write English.

The Federal laws requiring the use of interpreters and foreign languages are merely the tip of the iceberg. I recently sent a request to all of the State Governors and the major Feder al agencies asking for information regarding non-English forms and publications that their offices produce. which are intended for use in this country. Although my staff is still in the process of reviewing the data, and I have not yet received responses to all of my letters, we know that hundreds of different non English forms and publications are now being printed and distributed on a wide scale throughout the United States. These publications cover a broad spectrum and range from White House press releases in Spanish to National Labor Relations

lish and demonstrates a growing naas reducing the incentive to learn Engtionwide problem.

At the nongovernment level there is a great deal of emphasis being placed on the use of non-English languages. In some major metropolitan areas English is the second language: minorities, who speak only English, are being told that they must learn a foreign language in order to be eligible for a job in parts of this country; and, in many stores non-English languages are the only ones used to conduct business. It is not uncommon to find areas in this country where an individual can live all of his or her life having all of his social, commercial, and intellectual needs met without the use of English.

Statistics show a disconcerting trend away from the common use of English. In 1975 the Bureau of the Census reported that about 8 million people in this country used a language other than English in their households. when the census was conducted in 1980 the number of people who spoke a language other than English at home was found to be over 22 million. Although these numbers are subject to many interpretations, to me they indicate-very strongly-that the melting pot is not working as it once did.

My assumption is confirmed by a recent population bulletin, "U.8. Hispanics; Changing the Face of Amerca" which concluded that because of their common language and large numbers, Hispanics will take longer

than other immigrant groups to as

similate into the American society.

If this situation were static and merely a reflection of the large scale legal and illegal immigration the United States has been experiencing over the last few years-in 1980 more Immigrants entered the United States than at any time other than the peak years at the turn of the centurythere would not be cause for concern. However, what we are seeing is a decrease in the use of English and a widely accepted attitude that it is not necessary to learn English.

There is a new philosophy taking hold, and it is gaining more and more acceptance. In the June 13, 1983. Time magazine an article stated in regard to this new philosophy, that:

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD- SENATE

CONGRESSIONAL RECORDSENATE