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Thus the Justice Department's April 12 decision to modify its Clinton-era E.O. 13166 regulations — instead of revoking them outright — was probably done without anyone in the Bush inner circle paying particular attention. Yet decisions made with the least thought often cause the most harm. Team Bush has allowed the Clinton administration's radical reinterpretation of civil-rights law to become President Bush's own language policy. This promises to be an expensive mistake. E.O. 13166 declared a person's choice of language was a new civil right. The Clinton administration then issued a raft of regulations which interpreted E.O. 13166 as requiring any recipient of federal funds to be ready to provide translations into any language at any time. By allowing E.O. 13166 to stand, the Bush administration is repeating a similar error made by the Reagan administration. In 1980, during the last days of the Carter administration, the EEOC declared that language choice was a protected civil right. Instead of repealing this absurd policy outright, the Reagan folks busied themselves with other, important, matters. And the anti-English radicals at the EEOC simply waited for a friendlier administration. Under Bill Clinton, the EEOC's language-rights policy came back with a vengeance , despite its earlier rejection by the federal courts. Karl Rove may not be all that concerned with what E.O. 13166 might do four, eight, or twelve years from now. But he needs to consider what E.O. 13166 will do to the Bush legislative agenda this year. When it comes to balancing the budget, Medicaid is a fiscal black hole. The Congressional Research Service has identified Medicaid as "the largest of the joint federal/state entitlement programs" at an estimated cost of $190 billion in FY 1999, of which the federal government will provide $107.6 billion. Medicaid's financial drain will increase substantially, thanks to a letter from the Health Care Finance Administration to state Medicaid directors:
Minnesota now offers health-care forms in "a total of 11 languages: Arabic, Croatian, English, Hmong, Khmer, Lao, Oromo, Russian, Somali, Spanish and Vietnamese." Medicaid pays the bill. Washington State estimates that it will spend $24 million over two years just for oral interpretation. Medicaid picks up the tab. The impact of E.O. 13166 on welfare reform is likely to be equally catastrophic. Every person properly coached by a welfare-rights advocate can demand that every aspect of the benefit-application process be conducted in any language or dialect of his choosing. Any person denied welfare benefits can appeal on grounds of ineffective or misunderstood translation. State welfare agencies could well find themselves forced to videotape every hearing as a matter of self-protection and paying for two or more translators for each applicant. One translator would interpret. The other translator would monitor the first translator's interpretation, as recommended by the Department of Health and Human Services' E.O. 13166 policy-guidance document. The Bush administration's program to allow more participation by religious groups in federally funded programs will also run aground on the shoals of E.O. 13166. An Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in a hospital basement is covered by E.O. 13166. The gift of some surplus government chairs or cheese to a homeless shelter would also trigger E.O. 13166's extensive translation obligations. E.O. 13166 is beyond
fixing. It must be repealed. — Mr. Boulet is executive director of English First. |
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the midst of a worldwide war against terrorism and the ongoing Middle
East crisis, 
