2015-2016 Pending State Legislation

Official English Legislation Pending in State Legislatures

2015-2016 Session

California

A bilingual education bill entitled “Education for a Global Economy”, was passed and signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown. This legislation allows for another referendum( in November 2016) on bilingual education even though California voted to end the practice in 1998. ProEnglish is supporting efforts to defeat Prop 58.  Vote NO on proposition 58

Georgia

ProEnglish supported Sen. Josh McKoon and SR 675 in the Georgia General Assembly.This bill would have strengthened the official English statute in place,addressing the drivers license in Georgia where the test is administered in 11 languages. The bill passed in the Georgia Senate and failed in the House. ProEnglish supports this legislation in the upcoming 2017 Georgia legislature.

Status: awaiting legislation to be introduced in the 2017 Georgia General Assembly.

New Jersey

S.69 would make English the official language of the state.The bill was introduced by Sen. Anthony Bucco and is awaiting action in the Senate State Government , Wagering, Tourism, and Historic Preservation  Committee. ProEnglish supports.

New York

SB 1582 would make English the official language of the state. The New York State English Language Empowerment Act was sent to the Senate Committee on Investigations and Government Operations. ProEnglish supports. It did not move out of committee and  the session has ended. ProEnglish is supportive of new legislation being introduced in 2017.

Massachusetts

S. 2421, The Learning Opportunities  for Our Kids ( LOOK ) passed in the Massachusetts legislature. The bill must be reconciled with  similar House legislation. The session has ended it’s formal session , but will review legislation informally the balance of the calendar year. This bill would bring back bilingual education to Massachusetts. ProEnglish is opposed to this legislation.

Oregon

HB  3073, This legislation was introduced by State Representative Sal Esquivel.  This bill would make English the official language of the state. Efforts to make it a ballot initiative in November, 2016 failed. ProEnglish supports similar legislation to be offered in the 2017 legislature.

Pennsylvania

Rep. Ryan Warner introduced HB 1507. This  bill would make English the official language of the state. It did not make it out of the House Committee on State Government in the  2016 session. ProEnglish supports and is supportive of new legislation being introduced in 2017.

Texas

SB 447 was introduced by Texas State Senator  Bob Hall  in the last session of the Texas legislature. The bill was referred to the Senate Business and Commerce Committee.  SB 447 did not make it out of committee . The Texas legislature reconvenes in January 2017 and ProEnglish supports efforts by Sen. Hall to move this bill forward.

West Virginia

HB 2573 State Delegate Lynwood Ireland introduced this official English bill . After moving through both the Senate and House Judiciary committees, the bill was passed  and signed into law, making West Virginia the 32nd state to adopt English as the official  language of their respective state. ProEnglish supported this legislation.

Wisconsin

Several legislators are considering offering official English legislation in the 2017 session.