ProEnglish Files FOIA Request on Obamacare Translations

Contact Phil Kent
October 23, 2013                                                                         Phone: (404) 226-3549

ProEnglish Files Freedom of Information Request to Reveal Obamacare Language Translation Cost

ARLINGTON, VA – “Taxpayers have a right to know the foreign language translation costs related to President Obama’s rollout of the Affordable Care Act — especially in light of the spectacular failure of the telephone hotline and healthcare.gov website which includes a Spanish-only version,” says Executive Director Robert Vandervoort of ProEnglish. The Arlington-based organization, which advocates making English the official language of government operations, sent a request for “any and all records” pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act concerning the use of government translation funds for Obamacare.

“The Obamacare law is already an expensive entitlement and now we learn that translators in 150 languages were commissioned by the Department of Health and Human Services for the rollout as well for a Spanish-language website which initially failed to work,” Vandervoort says. “What is this costing taxpayers? Why is Obama spending whopping amounts of taxpayer dollars promoting immigrant dependency and multiculturalism in disregard to the interests of both taxpayers and immigrants?”

“Providing foreign language services simply caters to activist-led ethnic interest groups who have a stake in keeping immigrants isolated and alienated, while in the process diluting America’s English language heritage and weakening the melting pot tradition that is and always has been rooted in assimilation and learning our common tongue,” Vandervoort notes. “Furthermore, everyone who is a naturalized citizen is already supposed to be proficient in English.”

“These unnecessary Obamacare costs are a reminder that Congress should pass pending and overdue legislation designating English as the official language of government operations, as 31 states have already done,” Vandervoort concludes.