Pete Domenici: “I, too, ask for a ``yes'' vote on the Salazar-Domenici amendment which everybody should understand says that the English…”

“I, too, ask for a ``yes'' vote on the Salazar-Domenici amendment which everybody should understand says that the English language is the common language of the United States. I come from a State that is different from most of yours in that we have had a long history of trouble regarding what language we speak; this has been so from the very time New Mexico started to become a State. The legislature of the United States played around with New Mexico in an effort to see if there could be enough Anglos so there wouldn't be a majority of Spanish speakers at the State's infancy. We were told we had to wait for Statehood until there was a majority of English speakers in New Mexico, and the U.S. Supreme Court later said the Congress could not do that to New Mexico. New Mexico could do what they desired. We voted in a State constitution that still stands that says English and Spanish are common languages and you can speak both languages.”