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Three Oregon Lawmakers File Initiative To Make English Official State Language

NWNews | By Chris Lehman,
Chris Lehman
Published March 27, 2015 at 4:04 PM MDT
The Oregon Capitol.
M.O. Stevens
/
Wikimedia
The Oregon Capitol.

Three Republican state lawmakers filed an initiative petition this week to make English the official language of the state of Oregon.

It’s not clear that this initiative would actually lead to many state agencies to abandon providing services in languages other than English. It would have more of a symbolic effect. That’s because federal law requires any state agency that receives federal money to serve people who aren’t fluent in English.

A similar initiative failed to make the ballot in 2008. Two of the lawmakers involved in this year’s effort sponsored a bill in the legislature in 2007, but it died without a hearing.

The measure filed this week would need more than 88,000 signatures to make next year's ballot.

Copyright 2021 Northwest News Network. To see more, visit Northwest News Network.

Northwest News Network
Chris Lehman
Chris Lehman graduated from Temple University with a journalism degree in 1997. He landed his first job less than a month later, producing arts stories for Red River Public Radio in Shreveport, Louisiana. Three years later he headed north to DeKalb, Illinois, where he worked as a reporter and announcer for NPR–affiliate WNIJ–FM. In 2006 he headed west to become the Salem Correspondent for the Northwest News Network.
See stories by Chris Lehman
Chris Lehman
Chris Lehman graduated from Temple University with a journalism degree in 1997. He landed his first job less than a month later, producing arts stories for Red River Public Radio in Shreveport, Louisiana. Three years later he headed north to DeKalb, Illinois, where he worked as a reporter and announcer for NPR–affiliate WNIJ–FM. In 2006 he headed west to become the Salem Correspondent for the Northwest News Network.

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