I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1772
To declare English as the official language of the United States, to establish
a uniform English language rule for naturalization, and to avoid mis-
constructions of the English language texts of the laws of the United
States, pursuant to Congress’ powers to provide for the general welfare
of the United States and to establish a uniform rule of naturalization
under article I, section 8, of the Constitution.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH3, 2025
Mr. A
DERHOLT(for himself, Mr. NORMAN, Mrs. HARSHBARGER, Mr. GRAVES,
Mr. H
AMADEHof Arizona, Mr. GOSAR, Mr. STRONG, Mr. MOOREof Ala-
bama, Mr. R
OGERSof Alabama, and Mr. PALMER) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and Work-
force, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period
to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consider-
ation of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee
concerned
A BILL
To declare English as the official language of the United
States, to establish a uniform English language rule for
naturalization, and to avoid misconstructions of the
English language texts of the laws of the United States,
pursuant to Congress’ powers to provide for the general
welfare of the United States and to establish a uniform
rule of naturalization under article I, section 8, of the
Constitution.
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Designation of English 4
as the Official Language of the United States Act of 5
2025’’. 6
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 7
The Congress finds and declares the following: 8
(1) The United States is composed of individ-9
uals from diverse ethnic, cultural, and linguistic 10
backgrounds, and continues to benefit from this rich 11
diversity. 12
(2) Throughout the history of the United 13
States, the common thread binding individuals of 14
differing backgrounds has been the English lan-15
guage. 16
(3) Among the powers reserved to the States 17
respectively is the power to establish the English 18
language as the official language of the respective 19
States, and otherwise to promote the English lan-20
guage within the respective States, subject to the 21
prohibitions enumerated in the Constitution of the 22
United States and in laws of the respective States. 23
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(4) President Donald J. Trump signed an Exec-1
utive order on March 1, 2025 ‘‘Designating English 2
as the Official Language of The United States.’’ 3
SEC. 3. ENGLISH AS OFFICIAL LANGUAGE OF THE UNITED 4
STATES. 5
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Title 4, United States Code, is 6
amended by adding at the end the following new chapter: 7
‘‘CHAPTER 6—OFFICIAL LANGUAGE 8
‘‘SEC. 161. OFFICIAL LANGUAGE OF THE UNITED STATES. 9
‘‘The official language of the United States is 10
English. 11
‘‘SEC. 162. PRESERVING AND ENHANCING THE ROLE OF 12
THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE. 13
‘‘Representatives of the Federal Government 14
shall have an affirmative obligation to preserve and 15
enhance the role of English as the official language 16
of the Federal Government. Such obligation shall in-17
clude encouraging greater opportunities for individ-18
uals to learn the English language. 19
‘‘SEC. 163. OFFICIAL FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT TO BE 20
CONDUCTED IN ENGLISH. 21
‘‘(a) O
FFICIALFUNCTIONS.—The official functions 22
of the Government of the United States shall be conducted 23
in English. 24
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‘‘(b) SCOPE.—For the purposes of this section, the 1
term ‘United States’ means the several States and the 2
District of Columbia, and the term ‘official’ refers to any 3
function that (i) binds the Government, (ii) is required 4
by law, or (iii) is otherwise subject to scrutiny by either 5
the press or the public. 6
‘‘(c) P
RACTICALEFFECT.—This section shall apply 7
to all laws, public proceedings, regulations, publications, 8
orders, actions, programs, and policies, but does not apply 9
to— 10
‘‘(1) teaching of languages; 11
‘‘(2) requirements under the Individuals with 12
Disabilities Education Act; 13
‘‘(3) actions, documents, or policies necessary 14
for national security, international relations, trade, 15
tourism, or commerce; 16
‘‘(4) actions or documents that protect the pub-17
lic health and safety; 18
‘‘(5) actions or documents that facilitate the ac-19
tivities of the Bureau of the Census in compiling any 20
census of population; 21
‘‘(6) actions that protect the rights of victims of 22
crimes or criminal defendants; or 23
‘‘(7) using terms of art or phrases from lan-24
guages other than English. 25
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‘‘SEC. 164. UNIFORM ENGLISH LANGUAGE RULE FOR NATU-1
RALIZATION. 2
‘‘(a) U
NIFORMLANGUAGETESTINGSTANDARD.—All 3
citizens should be able to read and understand generally 4
the English language text of the Declaration of Independ-5
ence, the Constitution, and the laws of the United States 6
made in pursuance of the Constitution. 7
‘‘(b) C
EREMONIES.—All naturalization ceremonies 8
shall be conducted in English. 9
‘‘SEC. 165. RULES OF CONSTRUCTION. 10
‘‘Nothing in this chapter shall be construed— 11
‘‘(1) to prohibit a Member of Congress or any 12
officer or agent of the Federal Government, while 13
performing official functions, from communicating 14
unofficially through any medium with another per-15
son in a language other than English (as long as of-16
ficial functions are performed in English); 17
‘‘(2) to limit the preservation or use of Native 18
Alaskan or Native American languages (as defined 19
in the Native American Languages Act); 20
‘‘(3) to disparage any language or to discourage 21
any person from learning or using a language; or 22
‘‘(4) to be inconsistent with the Constitution of 23
the United States. 24
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‘‘SEC. 166. STANDING. 1
‘‘A person injured by a violation of this chapter may 2
in a civil action (including an action under chapter 151 3
of title 28) obtain appropriate relief.’’. 4
(b) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of chapters 5
at the beginning of title 4, United States Code, is amended 6
by inserting after the item relating to chapter 5 the fol-7
lowing new item: 8
‘‘Chapter 6. Official Language’’. 9
SEC. 4. GENERAL RULES OF CONSTRUCTION FOR ENGLISH 10
LANGUAGE TEXTS OF THE LAWS OF THE 11
UNITED STATES. 12
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Chapter 1 of title 1, United 13
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol-14
lowing new section: 15
‘‘SEC. 9. GENERAL RULES OF CONSTRUCTION FOR LAWS OF 16
THE UNITED STATES. 17
‘‘(a) English language requirements and workplace 18
policies, whether in the public or private sector, shall be 19
presumptively consistent with the laws of the United 20
States. 21
‘‘(b) Any ambiguity in the English language text of 22
the laws of the United States shall be resolved, in accord-23
ance with the last two articles of the Bill of Rights, not 24
to deny or disparage rights retained by the people, and 25
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to reserve powers to the States respectively, or to the peo-1
ple.’’. 2
(b) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of sections 3
at the beginning of chapter 1 of title 1 is amended by 4
inserting after the item relating to section 8 the following 5
new item: 6
‘‘9. General rules of construction for laws of the United States.’’.
SEC. 5. IMPLEMENTING REGULATIONS.
7
The Secretary of Homeland Security shall, within 8
180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, issue 9
for public notice and comment a proposed rule for uniform 10
testing of English language ability of candidates for natu-11
ralization, based upon the principles that— 12
(1) all citizens should be able to read and un-13
derstand generally the English language text of the 14
Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and 15
the laws of the United States which are made in 16
pursuance thereof; and 17
(2) any exceptions to this standard should be 18
limited to extraordinary circumstances, such as asy-19
lum. 20
SEC. 6. EFFECTIVE DATE. 21
The amendments made by sections 3 and 4 shall take 22
effect on the date that is 180 days after the date of the 23
enactment of this Act. 24
Æ
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