It all too often happens: Often legislation “has the votes” but some legislators slip away as the day grows longer to attend anything ranging from a cocktail happy hour to a family event. So it was last Friday with Senate Resolution 675– a constitutional amendment designating English as the official language of government operations. Senators Bill Jackson, P.K. Martin, Charlie Bethel and Bruce Thompson– all reliable votes— were nowhere to be found when it came calendar time for the amendment to be called for a floor vote.
S.R. 675 had already passed the Rules Committee headed by sympathetic Chairman Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga. But sponsoring Sen. Josh McKoon pulled it since it was just shy of the two-thirds vote needed to pass a constitutional amendment. It will return for a floor vote again later today, and backers hope enough senators stay to see it passed.
Robert Vandervoort, the executive director of the Washington-based ProEnglish organization that advocates for English as the official language of states and the federal government, says S.R. 675 “enhances better communication and saves significant taxpayer money by reducing burdensome translation costs.”
S.R. 675 provides “that official state actions be in English” and bars “any language other than English be used in any documents, regulations, orders, transactions, proceedings, meetings, programs or publications.” It also prohibits “discrimination, penalties or other limits on participation against persons who speak only English.”
“Georgia is one of 31 states that have state laws stipulating government use of English, but there are loopholes in Georgia that this constitutional amendment would close,” Vandervoort says. “For example, the state Department of Driver Services administers the permanent resident driver’s license test in 11 foreign languages. That must end. That misguided policy especially undermines public safety, since all road signage is in English.”
“There are also common-sense exceptions in S.R. 675 for the state and its political subdivisions. They include the teaching of languages other than English, the promotion of diplomacy, trade, commerce and tourism with other languages, the protection of the rights of crime victims and criminal defendants if other language usage is required and continued use of terms and phrases from other languages that are commonly used,” Vandervoort says.
The Georgia Association of Latino Elected Official (GALEO) is a leading opponent of S.R. 675. In a Friday email urging supporters to call lawmakers, it attacked the legislation as “unnecessary and mean-spirited” and “would paint Georgia as unwelcoming to foreigners and foreign investors.”
