George Miller: “Mr. Chairman, earlier in the debate the gentleman from California (Mr. Cunningham) got up and spoke about his…”

“Mr. Chairman, earlier in the debate the gentleman from California (Mr. Cunningham) got up and spoke about his legislation dealing with English as an official language. The point was made that all states would be treated the same, and the states had a right to change some requirements under the 10th Amendment, should they decide to do so. The problem with the Solomon amendment is that in fact in this legislation it treats Puerto Rico differently than any other State in the Union, because it goes on and declares that English is the official language of the United States. But it then goes on to say the people of Puerto Rico can only communicate with the Federal Government in English and that the Federal Government can only communicate with the people of Puerto Rico in English. This means if you are a DEA agent, you can only speak English if you are engaged in an activity. If you are the FBI, you can only speak English if you are engaged in an activity. If you are engaged in a search and rescue and the people do not speak English, you can only speak to them in English. I do not think that is what we want to do.”