Recipients of direct or indirect federal assistance means virtually every state and local government agency in the country and will therefore impact local schools, hospitals, health clinics, libraries, parks, police and fire departments, as well as countless county and municipal agencies. Already, the California Medical Association is protesting that the financial burdens of compliance may force already financially strapped doctors and community hospitals to stop seeing indigent, non-English speaking patients. Mr. Chairmen, stripped of its rhetoric, E.O. 13166 represents an effort to transfer the entire hidden cost of not speaking English from LEP persons to taxpayers. E.O. 13166 does to the Constitution and the separation of powers doctrine on which our democracy depends. As mentioned, the scope of E.O. 13166 is not limited to written translations of an unknown number of languages but specifically requires that oral interpreter services be made available.
Regulations specifically reference the hiring of bilingual employees and staff interpreters.
To provide access to services equivalent to that obtained by individuals able to speak English would require the hiring of tens if not hundreds of thousands of interpreters and translators. This would greatly expand the number of employees at all levels of government and create barriers to employment for persons who were not multilingual. Because it creates a Title VI entitlement to accurate and timely services in the preferred language of a LEP person, E.O. 13166 is certain to unleash a flood of costly civil rights litigation alleging damages to individuals and classes of individuals. Moreover, conflict is sure to arise over the issue of mistaken translations and faulty interpretations that will provide fodder for endless litigation and court battles over the meaning and nuances of non-English words. Courts will be called on to reconcile linguistic disputes of Sisyphean dimensions.