by Christopher E. Renner

This spring saw two moves in the House of Representatives which need to be brought to the attention of the MIDTESOL membership.

In March, Rep. Peter King (R-NY) introduced H.R. 1005 with nine co-sponsors. Entitled the National Language Act, H R. 1005 makes English the offical language of the US Government and repeals the Bilingual Education Act (Title VII). This bill would specifically terminate the Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs (OBEMLA). It would also require the government to conduct all its official business in English, including publications, income tax forms, and information materials. It repeals the provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 concerning bilingual election requirements and congressional findings of voter discrimination against language minorities, and also repeals the prohibition of English-only elections. It would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to require all ceremonies in which the oath of allegiance is administered to be conducted only in English. The bill provides an exemption on the use of other languages other than English for religious services, for training in foreign languages needed for international communications, and for programs in schools designed to encourage students to learn foreign languages.

Prior to the introduction of the above bill, Rep. Bob Stump (R-AZ) had introduced H. R. 50, The Declaration of Official English Act of 1999 with six co-sponsors. This bill too declares English as the official language of the US government and repeals the Bilingual Education Act. H. R. 50 also requires the US government to promote and support the use of English for communication among US citizens by requiring all communications between offices and employees of the government to be in English. It would force the Immigration and Naturalization Service to establish proficiency standards in English for all applicants seeking US citizenship and to conduct all naturalization ceremonies in English. It would amend the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to repeal the bilingual voting requirements. Finally, the bill would allow anyone suffering injury on account of a violation of this Act to obtain appropriate relief in a civil action. It would also authorize the court in such an action to allow the prevailing party a reasonable attorney's fee.

Needless to say, those who would suffer most under these proposed bills are our students. So far they have not been scheduled for action in the House, but both bills have co-sponsors who are members of the Education and Workforce Committee. Since the Bilingual Education Act is reauthorized as part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, these co-sponsors indicate we need to pay close attention to the actions they take later this year.

Full texts of the bills and the status can be found at: http://thomas.loc.gov/home/c106query.html (for example - enter - H.R. 1005 or H.R. 50) on the WWW. In the meantime, it is always advantageous to express your concern for these bills with your representative in Congress. While none of the co-sponsors is thus far from our four-state region, that doesn't mean our representatives wouldn't vote for such a bill if it came to the floor. Early opposition is often remembered the longest.

At MIDTESOL's website, you can now find the complete text of the "Federal Update" sent out by TESOL's Advocacy Office. As new Updates are sent, they too will be posted so that our membership can stay abreast of what is happening on the national level. It is also important that information travels up the organization as well. If you know of sociopolitical concern issues in your district or State level, please pass them along to me so that I can forward them to TESOL's Sociopolitical Concerns Committee. You can email me at: renner@ksu.edu

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