Official English Legislation Introduced in U.S. Senate

Three months after leading the effort to make English the official language of the United States during the Senate debate on immigration, Senator James Inhofe became the first Senator in six years to offer an official English bill with the introduction of S. 3828 yesterday. S. 3828 would make English the official language of the United States, reducing the legal entitlement of government services in another language.

“Senator Inhofe has long been a champion of this unifying issue, and I want to thank him for his efforts in introducing S. 3828,” said Mauro E. Mujica, Chairman of the Board of U.S. English. “While many in Congress are trying to push this issue to the back burner, Sen. Inhofe is being responsive to the vast majority of Americans who want English to be our official language.”

Earlier this year, Sen. Inhofe introduced an amendment to the Senate immigration bill to make English the “national language” of the United States. This measure passed the Senate, 62-35, and is now part of the comprehensive immigration legislation pending in conference between the House and Senate. Recent polls have found that 84 percent of Americans support making English the official language of the United States, with high degrees of support from first- and second-generation Americans.

In addition to the Senate-passed legislation on the federal level, official English measures were approved by legislators in Arizona, Delaware, Michigan and Pennsylvania. The Arizona measure, H.C.R. 2036, passed both the House and Senate and will be on the statewide ballot this November as Proposition 103. If approved by the voters, Arizona will become the 28th state in the nation with English as its official language.

“As the United States continues its legacy as a nation of immigrants, we must also continue the legacy of assimilating those immigrants into becoming Americans,” added Mujica. “However, this transformation cannot take place if we cannot communicate in the common language of our nation, English. I am pleased that most Americans and many legislators are taking steps to preserve and promote this unifying force, and I look forward to seeing several of these measures enacted in the near future.”

U.S. English, Inc. is the nation's oldest and largest non-partisan 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, Inc. (www.usenglish.org) now has more than 1.8 million members.