By Pete Kasperowicz The Washington Examiner
More than two dozen House Democrats have proposed legislation that would require the White House and all federal agencies to create websites in Spanish and three additional languages .
Rep. Lou Correa, D-Calif., proposed the bill, which would require federal websites in Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, and Vietnamese, according to a description of the bill in the Congressional Record. Tagalog is an Austronesian language spoken by most people in the Philippines.
Correa told the Los Angeles Times in March that federal websites need to be translated into these languages because people who speak those languages are also U.S. taxpayers.
“It’s really just a matter of making government more transparent, more accountable, more effective for more people,” Correa said. “At the end of the day it doesn’t matter what language you speak, you’re ultimately still a taxpayer.”
The bill is a reaction to the Trump administration, which removed the Spanish language section of the White House website once President Trump took office.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer was asked about that decision just days after Trump was sworn into office, and said the Spanish-language page would be returning soon.
“We are continuing to build out the website, both in the issue areas and then that area, but we’ve got the IT folks working overtime right now to continue to get all of that up to speed,” Spicer said. “Trust me, it’s just going to take a little bit more time, but we’re working piece by piece to get that done.”