One Republican lawmaker says the federal government is spending potential billions of dollars to translate forms and documents into a multitude of foreign languages, despite the U.S. being a majority English-speaking nation.
Rep. Sam Graves of Missouri is slated to introduce the Cost of Services and Translations Act, or COST Act, this week in order to find out exactly how much the nation spends catering to foreign speakers.
“America is a collection of people from different races, religions and backgrounds; that is part of what makes us great,” Graves told Washington Examiners Paul Bedard. “But a common language is what brings all of those people together to form a community.”
Graves said that the idea for his legislation came from recent reports that Canada’s official English/French bilingual policy costs its government about $2.4 billion to maintain annually.
A 2012 study on the policy was outlined thusly by Canada’s National Post:
The 10 provinces spend a total of $900-million annually on minority language services, with the bulk going toward French-language education outside Quebec and English-language education inside Quebec. Ontario spends the most, doling out $623-million — or $1,275 for each minority member. While Quebec ranks third in overall spending at $51-million annually, it spends the least per minority member — mostly anglophones — at just $85 a head.
The U.S., meanwhile, is translating government forms and documents into as many as 150 different world languages.
Bedard noted:
Obamacare alone demands that call centers provide interpretation for 150 languages; a 2002 Office of Management and Budget report set a price of nearly $300 million to provide non-English translations in doctor’s offices and hospitals; and a 1997 National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences report that the Feds spend $665 million a year on bilingual programs.
Graves said his bill will make the cost of translation more transparent to taxpayers, making an English-only policy more attractive than ever before.
“Despite overwhelming support for the United States to adopt English as its official language, we have still not taken that important step,” Graves said. “My bill will strengthen the case to make English our official language and will save the federal government millions of dollars every year.”
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