Misleading E-mail Claims Senators Voted Against the English Language

Disgusting !!!!!! And not just the highlighted ones. If you are so inclined, give it the widest distribution possible.

38 SENATORS VOTED TODAY AGAINST MAKING ENGLISH THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE OF AMERICA.

HERE THEY ARE.

Akaka (D-HI)
Bayh (D-IN)
Biden (D-DE)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Clinton (D-NY)
Dayton (D-MN)
Dodd (D-CT)
Domenici (-NM)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D -WI)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Jeffords (I-VT)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Kohl (D-WI)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lieberman (D-CT)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murray (D-WA)
Obama (D-IL)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Sarbanes (D-MD)
Schumer (D-NY)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Wyden (D-OR)

REMEMBER THIS THE DAY YOU VOTE.

Feel free to send back my response:

Fellow Americans,

There has been an email circulating that claims Democrats voted against the English language being the national language of the United States. here is the whole story.

If you do some research, you'll see that the e-mail is referring to an amendment to a bill that was in Congress called the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006. In that bill, which was passed, (some opponents said that this bill allowed easier legal status to illegal aliens) the amendment that was voted "Nay" by the Democrats did propose that "The Government of the United States shall preserve and enhance the role of English as the national language of the United States of America." But it also said that "no person has a right, entitlement, or claim to have the Government of the United States or any of its officials or representatives act, communicate, perform or provide services, or provide materials in any language other than English." The Democrats were voting against that portion of the bill judging by the results of their votes on the following Amendment (Salazar Amdt. No. 4073 As Modified).

The Amendment (Salazar Amdt. No. 4073 As Modified) that was voted Yea by the Democrats listed below (including the dreaded Clinton) was a similar bill. This one read that the government was "To declare that English is the common and unifying language of the United States, and to preserve and enhance the role of the English language." But that "Nothing herein shall diminish or expand any existing rights under the law of the United States relative to services or materials provided by the Government of the United States in any language other than English. " The Democrats all voted for this bill which basically said, we will preserve English as the language of America but we will offer services to other languages.

The actual Bill, (Which you can read here: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:s.2611.es: ) is very comprehensive and has many amendments (found here: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:SN02611:@@@L&summ2=m ) The bill was about illegal aliens and border security issues. It was passed by a 62-36 bipartisan vote.

So, in fact, the e-mail sent out is not even close to the whole story.

Remember THAT when you vote.

Reference:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/immigration/englishvote.asp

(Snopes.com always gets their man! Or email fraud!)