美国会通过法案正式确定英语为美国官方语言

Bill Introduced In Congress To Declare English As The Official

Language Of The United States

WASHINGTON, May 25 /U.S. Newswire/ — Yesterday a bipartisan

group of Congressmen introduced legislation to declare English

the official language of the United States government.

Republican Congressmen Bob Barr of Georgia, Howard Coble of

North Carolina, and Bill Jenkins of Tennessee, along with

Democrat Congressmen Ralph Hall of Texas, and Ronnie Shows of

Mississippi introduced H.R. 1984.

This legislation, “The English Language Unity Act of 2001”

would require nearly all federal official government business to

be conducted in English, and all documents to be printed in

English, while protecting individual Constitutional rights.

Exceptions would include documents to protect public health and

safety, law enforcement, court translations, and tourism.

U.S.ENGLISH Chairman/CEO Mauro E. Mujica applauded the joint

Republican and Democrat effort to recognize English as the

official language of the United States, and said this

legislation would encourage assimilation.

“Official English would encourage immigrants, giving them an

incentive to learn English and to assimilate,” said Mujica. “If

all government services are provided in other languages, the

urgency to learn English would be gone. And without English,

immigrants have little chance of obtaining decent wage-earning

jobs, which statistically hurts their children”s success in this

country. As an immigrant whose mother tongue is Spanish, I can

testify first-hand that English is indeed the key to opportunity

in America.

“The 2000 Census numbers have shown that our foreign born

population has increased to about 30 million within the past

decade,” said Mujica. “In a country which is becoming more

diverse, and where 329 languages are spoken, we must have one

common official language in order to unite, and communicate with

each other. Of course, official English legislation would only

effect government — not private businesses, organizations,

churches, or private speech.”

Studies of the Census show that an immigrant”s income rises

about 30 percent as a result of learning English. Another study

published by the U.S. Department of Labor found that immigrants

are slower to learn English when they receive a lot of native

language support. In addition, 2000 Census numbers show that

Hispanics and non-Hispanic whites are increasingly becoming

segregated, creating poverty-stricken enclaves. One of the

reasons cited for the creation of these enclaves is the language

barrier.

U.S.ENGLISH has been active in all of the states where

official English legislation has been a legislative priority. In

November 2000, Utah voters passed an initiative declaring

English as the official language of their state, and Alaska

passed their official English state law in 1998 through a voter

initiative. So far, 26 states have already declared English as

their official state government language.

U.S.ENGLISH is the nation”s oldest, largest citizens” action

group dedicated to preserving the unifying role of the English

language in the United States. Founded in 1983 by the late Sen.

S.I. Hayakawa of California, U.S.ENGLISH currently has more than

1.5 million members nationwide. To learn more about U.S.ENGLISH

please visit our website at http://www.us-english.org.