Treasury Goes Polyglot
The Treasury Department has issued mandatory multilingual regulations.

By Jim Boulet Jr., executive director, English First
MArch 22, 2001 9:10 a.m.

he U.S. Department of the Treasury under Secretary Paul O'Neill has become the first Bush-administration agency to issue regulations requiring all federally funded entities to provide services in multiple languages. His agency gets an "A+" for efficiency and an "F" for policy.

On March 7th, the Federal Register carried Treasury's "Guidance to Federal Financial Assistance Recipients on the Title VI Prohibition Against National Origin Discrimination Affecting Limited English Proficient Persons."

"[M]eaningful access" must be now provided by all "recipients of federal financial assistance from the U.S. Department of the Treasury." This access must be provided "free of charge" to all non-English-speakers, including those "whose language does not exist in written form."

Notice of these translation services "in appropriate languages" is to be inserted into "brochures, pamphlets, manuals and other materials disseminated to the public and to staff."

The Treasury Department officially rejects the idea that the non-English speaker might bring along an English-speaking child or neighbor to translate because "[t]he client's untrained 'interpreter' is often unable to understand the concepts or official terminology he or she is being asked to interpret [and] his or her mere presence may obstruct the flow of confidential information."

Now, it is not immediately obvious why a Limited-English-Proficient (LEP) person would have more confidence in a government translator than in a trusted friend, priest, or minister. And yet, should someone on staff so much as "suggest" that a nervous person bring along a friend or family member for the purposes of translation, "a recipient may expose itself to [legal] liability."

At Treasury, access to all services must not be "more limited in scope or [be] lower in quality than those provided to" English speakers. How an organization is supposed to verify the quality of the translation is nowhere explained.

The department's official guidance requires all recipients of Treasury-related funds to "evaluate their entire language policy at least every three years." How are they to accomplish that? "One way to evaluate the LEP policy is to seek feedback from the community." In fact, "consultation with community organizations that represent LEP language groups" is part of Treasury's "Model Plan."

Such a feedback process is an open invitation to unlimited complaints by the self-proclaimed representatives of every conceivable language group in America.

Such radical language requirements are the sort that might have been released under the reign of Bill Clinton. In fact, this Bush-administration policy-guidance document reads like a virtual Xerox of similar documents issued under the Clinton departments of Justice, Health and Human Services, and Transportation.

How could a Bush-administration Treasury Secretary approve such a policy? The answer lies in the problem faced by many top business executives who arrive in Washington thinking that running a government agency is just like running a business.

In any corporation, the goal is clear and specific — to make a profit. The success of the capitalist system is based precisely on this goal. The best business executive need not worry about the political agenda of his employees.

The goals of any government agency are equally clear and specific: to increase its budget, its power, and its payroll. Liberal ideology supports such goals. Conservative convictions do not. For this reason, it is essential that a government executive concern himself with the political agenda of those who advise him.

In government, those firmly committed to a political agenda will run rings around those concerned only with making the trains run on time. Those who lack clear policy convictions of their own will end up doing the bidding of those who do. And like Alec Guinness, the British POW colonel in the film, The Bridge on the River Kwai, such folks will end up working day and night to ensure the success of an enemy strategy.

This is why the Bush administration must root out the Clintonistas still carrying on the fight from their hidden bunkers throughout America's federal agencies. Bush Cabinet officials will continue to get bad advice from these folks as long as they stay in office.

It also wouldn't hurt for the Bush administration to move more swiftly to repeal Clinton-administration policies, such as Executive Order 13166 — the federal requirement to provide both written and oral translations in any person's language of choice — which started this whole mess. While Congressman Bob Stump's legislation to repeal EO 13166 (H.R.969) has attracted 36 co-sponsors, including three committee chairmen, the Bush administration need not wait for Congress to act.

Clinton made America officially multilingual with the stroke of his pen. Bush can undo much of the ensuing damage the very same way. This president needs to get his Treasury Department out of the language business.