English-only driver's license bill likely dead

NASHVILLE -- A Cleveland lawmaker's bill requiring that state driver's license exams be given only in English was delayed Wednesday until December, a move designed to kill the measure for this legislative session.

The vote was 12-3 in the House Budget Subcommittee. Senators passed the bill last week, 22-10.

Tennessee Department of Safety officials said the much-amended bill, sponsored by Rep. Eric Watson, R-Cleveland, was changed to the point where it really does nothing.

But critics charged it still sent the wrong message as Tennessee seeks to recruit foreign companies to join Germany's Volkswagen and Wacker Chemical in the state.

"This is probably one of the worst bills we've ever had before the General Assembly," said former House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh, D-Covington. "We may as well put a sign up if this passes that you're not welcome to Tennessee."

Under pressure from business interests, Rep. Watson earlier had accepted an amendment saying exams must be given only in English except for people lawfully in the United States. Illegal immigrants cannot lawfully obtain a driver's license.

Tennessee exams now are given in English, Spanish, Japanese, Korean and German. The Watson proposal says exams can be "administered in such languages as may be determined by the Department of Safety with assistance from the Department of Economic and Community Development."

Rep. Watson, a Bradley County Sheriff's Office lieutenant, said the issue is safety. He noted that, in the early 2000s, Tennessee passed laws allowing "illegals to get driving certificates."

"When we allowed them people to take tests in a foreign language, the accidents went up," Rep. Watson said.

Rep. Watson said the Nashville Chamber of Commerce put out an urgent request for bilingual first-responders during recent floods "because they was having problems communicating with people, even drivers that's stuck in cars. It was in the paper. I ain't making it up. This is facts."

But House Speaker Kent Williams, R-Elizabethton, said the amended bill "pretty much keeps the law as it is." Moreover, he said, if people are worried about highway safety, someone should look at cell phones, which he said "causes more death than anything else."

In Georgia

Similar bills in Georgia passed the House and Senate in the most recent legislative session but died when the House version wasn't brought up for a Senate vote as required.

"Like many other good bills debated in the General Assembly every year, this measure went through multiple changes and simply did not come up for a vote before the 2010 session gaveled to a close," Marshall Guest, spokesman for House Speaker David Ralston, wrote in an e-mail.

"The speaker is committed to working on this legislation during the interim and bringing it back for consideration next session," he wrote.

This is the third defeat for the English-only driver's license exam bill in Georgia, according to the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials.

Sen. Jack Murphy, R-Cumming, the bill's sponsor, said he doesn't know if he will bring it up next session, aide Mary Whiting said.

What about literacy?

In a Monday news conference, Rep. Watson said one of his concerns is that foreign-language speakers cannot read new, computerized signs on interstates warning of workers ahead, traffic slowdowns or emergencies.

But he acknowledged the bill would not affect native-born Tennesseans who are illiterate.

"At least you can communicate with them people," he said.

Continue reading by following these links to related stories:

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