Hume, last night: [1]
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is trying to kill an amendment that would shield from lawsuits — employers who require their workers to speak English.
The Wall Street Journal reports one of those employers being targeted by an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit is The Salvation Army — which gives employees one year to learn English. The amendment to protect The Salvation Army and other businesses has passed both the House and Senate. But Pelosi promised to get rid of it after the House Hispanic Caucus threatened to kill a larger tax bill over the issue.
The sponsor of the amendment — Tennessee Republican Senator Lamar Alexander — told the Senate Thursday — “I cannot imagine that the framers of the 1964 Civil Rights Act intended to say that it’s discrimination for a shoe shop owner to say to his or her employee, ‘I want you to be able to speak America’s common language on the job.'”
Look, let’s be honest here; Lamar Alexander is a putz of the first order. That said, he’s right on this one. I’ll take a step farther; English and the ability to speak it should be a requirement for entry into this country as an immigrant, and for a job.
Period.