The White House on Friday backed a Senate amendment declaring English the “national language,” a measure that was called racist by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid.
“English is the predominant language in the United States,” said White House Press Secretary Tony Snow. “You want to make sure that people are fluent in English because you want them to be able to enter the mainstream of society, and you want them to do well.”
The “national language” measure was sponsored by Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., as an amendment to an immigration reform bill. The Bush administration also endorsed an amendment by Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., declaring English the nation?s “common and unifying” language.
“There is nativist sentiment in both of these,” a reporter told Snow at the James S. Brady press briefing room in the White House on Friday.
“You?re telling me that Democratic Senator Salazar is guilty of nativism?” Snow said. “Both of the people who proposed amendments, Senator Inhofe and Senator Salazar, are themselves fluent in Spanish.”
The exchange came one day after Reid used unusually strong language on the Senate floor to condemn the Inhofe amendment.
“This amendment is racist,” he said. “I think it?s directed basically to people who speak Spanish.”
Inhofe called the charge “ridiculous.”
Most senators agreed and the Inhofe amendment easily passed on a vote of 63-34. The Salazar amendment passed 58-39, reflecting widespread public support for English as America?s official language.
A poll taken this year by Zogby International found that 84 percent of respondents say that English should be the official language of U.S. government communications.
Though President Bush sprinkles Spanish phrases into his speeches and wants to grant legal status to illegal immigrants, he opposes turning America into a bilingual nation.
“I think the national anthem ought to be sung in English,” he said last month. “And I think people who want to be a citizen of this country ought to learn English.”
