Official Petition to the 115th U.S. Congress

To REJECT H.R. 260 and Legislative Efforts to Make Puerto Rico the First-Ever Spanish-Speaking State in the Union!

Whereas, a leading presidential contender was quite vocal in his support for Puerto Rico statehood;

Whereas, the House of Representatives may consider H.R. 260, a bill that would allow Puerto Rico to become the 51st state in the Union — and the first ever Spanish-speaking state in the Union;

Whereas, H.R. 260 does not require as a condition of statehood that Puerto Rico establish English as its official language, despite the fact that four times in our nation’s history, Congress has confronted the issue of statehood for U.S. territories where a significant portion of the population was non-English-speaking.  And in all of these cases, substantial changes to language policy were a condition for statehood;

Whereas, under 20 percent of Puerto Ricans can speak English fluently, Puerto Rico’s legislative and judicial proceedings are conducted entirely in Spanish, and English is rarely taught for more than 50 minutes each day in Puerto Rico’s schools;

Whereas, if Puerto Rico becomes the 51st state in the Union it would create a dangerous domino effect that could seriously undermine the national momentum for the Official English laws you’ve helped us pass and protect in 32 states and spark an unprecedented surge of taxpayer-funded official multilingual policies at all levels of government;

Therefore, Be it Resolved, as your constituent and a member of U.S. ENGLISH, Inc., I hereby petition you, as my elected officials, to reject all legislative efforts to turn Puerto Rico into the first ever Spanish speaking state in the Union and spark a massive new wave of official multilingual policies across this nation.

Prepared and Authorized By:

U.S. English, Inc.
5335 Wisconsin Ave NW, Suite 930
Washington, DC 20015

Respectfully Submitted By:

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