Speech #990001244

The resolution introduced today will help put an end to that trend. Most Americans incorrectly assume that English is the official language of the United States. Although it is the normal language for public discourse and the marketplace. the Federal Government spends in excess of $130 million each year subsidizing the education of nonEnglishspeaking immigrant schoolchildren. Originally. those programs were undertaken with the intention of facilitating the assimilation of immigrants into our culture by beginning educational instruction in their native tongue. Unfortunately. however. bilingual educational is no longer a transitional means of teaching immigrant children. Rather. it has become a practice that promotes the preservation of separate cultural identities while. at the same time. alienating the immigrant from the mainstream of American society. The constitutional amendment proposed by Senator SYMMS today has been considered by the Senate before. A similar resolution was attached as an amendment to the Immigration Reform Act of 1982. which was passed by the Senate with 78 affirmative votes. The identical resolution was introduced in the 98th Congress by Senator HUDDLESTON. Still. English is not recognized or treated by the U.S. Government as the countrys official language. As a result. the newest immigrants to the United States. unlike their predecessors. are not learning in English. For example. over 10 million Americans can speak only Spanish and. if current trends continue. by the year 2030 more than half of Californias population will be Spanishspeaking. Similar problems are developing with other. smaller. immigrant groups. We are witnessing a dangerous development in the cultural history of our Nation: the Federal Government is endorsing and supporting the development of a multilingual United States. Federal and State government agencies spend $138 billion a year on bilingual education.