Thread: ProEnglish: Obama Fills Key Post with Multilingual Advocate

From "The ProEnglish Advocate"
Spring, 2009

Obama Administration fills key post with multilingual advocate

The Obama Administration has nominated Thomas Perez, Maryland’s Secretary of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation to be the U.S. Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division.

Perez’s nomination cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee by a vote of 17-2 despite criticism from several Republican senators for his service as president and board member for a far-left Hispanic advocacy organization called CASA de Maryland. Perez’s nomination will now go to the full Senate for confirmation.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) criticized Perez's advocacy of free translation and interpreter services for non-English speaking patients. He said that if Perez had his way, it would drive up health care costs and end up hurting the very people it was intended to help. Sen. John Kyl (R-AZ) described Perez's advocacy of bilingual assistance for patients who don't speak English as “very troubling.â€

Obama has a definite pattern going on here.