I've been doing a little digging through the new legislation on govtrack.us and I thought I would point to a couple of bills that might be of interest to my blog readers. They might be of interest because they both deal with issues I have discussed on this blog. I have actually found, and am monitoring, many bills as well as the actions of my legislators. ...

The first bill is House Resolution 2111. Sponsored by representative Rush Holt, who is a Democrat from New Jersey, this bill is titled the 'Foreign Language Education Partnership Program Act'. The purpose is to amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to establish a partnership program in foreign languages. One part of the bill I particularly like is:

From the amounts made available to carry out this section, the Secretary may make incentive payments for a fiscal year to eligible partnerships to develop and maintain, or to improve and expand, model programs that support articulated foreign language learning in kindergarten through grade 12.

I like it because it talks about foreign language learning starting from kindergarten. Bravo.

The second bill is something that, I've read, comes up every year. It is http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s110-1335. Sponsored by Senator James Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma, this bill is entered with the intention of Declaring English as the official language of the United States of America. The full text wasn't available as of my post but it will probably be available in a couple of days. If English is declared the official language of the US, I could see some issues. Most of it has to do with respecting the diversity of our nation, especially the areas that are mostly native and those dialects are strong. Depending on the wording of the bill, people who don't speak English well may have their civil liberties threatened in cases where they would currently be provided an interpreter.

I know many people feel different from me, so whether you feel the same or different please comment. I highly recommend looking at the bills at least a bit for yourselves, but I'll leave that decision to you.