Thread: Gov. Bredesen TN Piqued, May Veto License Bill

Bredesen piqued, may veto license bill
By ERIK SCHELZIG, Associated Press
March 6, 2007


NASHVILLE — Gov. Phil Bredesen said today he is disappointed the Senate passed an English language driver’s license testing bill and will seriously consider a veto if the House also approves it.
"This is not a bill about illegal immigration, we are already fully on track to not have illegal immigrants get driver’s licenses in Tennessee," Bredesen said. "This is just posturing."





The state Senate voted 22-6 on Monday evening to pass the measure to make English the main language for driver’s license tests.

A bill the Bredesen administration drafted to eliminate a driving certificate program for illegal immigrants passed a House transportation subcommittee Tuesday. The Department of Safety quit issuing the driving certificates last year after federal investigators found rings shuttling in immigrants from other states to get them.

Sen. Bill Ketron — who initially proposed requiring written exams for driver’s licenses be offered only in English — acknowledges that the version which passed the Senate would not change the way the state currently tests prospective drivers.

But the Murfreesboro Republican argued Monday that his bill "sets the right tone of what people want to see in the state of Tennessee."

Bredesen criticized Ketron’s motivations.

"Senator Ketron said this is setting the tone in the state. I agree with him. It is not a good tone," Bredesen said.

Road tests are already given only in English. Examiners determine English comprehension by seeing if they can follow instructions — like turning on a blinker or applying the brakes — before they start driving. Applicants must also be able to read road signs and respond to English questions when they are driving.

Applicants can use translation dictionaries for the written portion of the test, which is also given in Japanese, Korean and Spanish. Interpreters are not allowed to join applicants on the road test.

Ketron’s bill would lock the state into offering the test in only those four languages, stripping the administration of the flexibility to add other languages in the future, Bredesen said.

And as for the explanation that the measure would only make law what is already in practice, Bredesen said: "If that’s all it does, then it really is just posturing."

The Democratic governor also expressed disappointment in the five Senate Democrats who voted for the measure.

Bredesen, a New York native, said he remembered how "open and welcoming" Tennessee was toward outsiders when he first moved to the state more than three decades ago.

"I think that got diminished yesterday," Bredesen said.

Bredesen said he doesn’t expect the bill to pass in the House, but still "made the state a little chillier, and a less friendly place."

Bredesen said he would consider a veto "very, very carefully" if it does pass in the Democratic-controlled House.

The Senate passed a similar bill last year, but it failed in the House. House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh, D-Covington, last week accused Ketron of supporting the measure to gain publicity.

The companion bill has been assigned to a subcommittee of the House Transportation Committee. The subcommittee has not yet set a date to consider the measure.

Some Democrats have suggested the measure will hurt Tennessee efforts to recruit foreign investment in the state.

More details as they develop online and in Wednesday’s News Sentinel.

http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/state/artic ... %2C00.html

Once again a politican refuses to make English the official language. Tenn needs to get rid of this governor before he gives the state away.

If anyone has time we need to write this Gov. and explain how important this bill is and ask him to please not veto this bill as it expresses most of the American citizens wishes!

No AMERICAN should have any reservations about making English official for any federal, state or local government forms, communication, etc.. I mean after all, IT IS OUR FREAKIN LANGUAGE.

Governor's Office
Tennessee State Capitol
Nashville, TN 37243-0001

Phone: 615.741.2001
Fax: 615.532.9711
Email: phil.bredesen@state.tn.us

Originally Posted by dlm1968

Governor's Office
Tennessee State Capitol
Nashville, TN 37243-0001

Phone: 615.741.2001
Fax: 615.532.9711
Email: phil.bredesen@state.tn.us

Thank you for making it so easy for the rest of us to email this fearless leader!

I am very disappointed in Ketron for allowing these other languages at costs to Tennesseans.

Speakers of Foreign Languages
(at home in Tennessee in the 2000 Census)

Spanish
133,930

German
20,210

French
17,360

Vietnamese
6,625

Korean
6,550

Arabic
6,480

Chinese
6,290

Laotian
4,495

Japanese
4,425

Tagalog
3,385

(Source: Census Bureau report: Language Spoken at Home for the Population 5 Years and Over, April 2004)

March 8, 2007

Off Limits

Cracking Down on All Those French Immigrants. It was business as usual this week in the state Senate —windy, absurd debate about a pointless piece of legislation. This time, the issue was—surprise!—stamping out illegal immigration. Or at least illegal immigration was supposed to be the issue, but it turned out that the bill by Sen. Bill Ketron, a Murfreesboro Republican, actually would punish only foreign nationals who are here legally and then only certain of them—not the South-of-the-border variety who generally are most detested by the mouth-breathers of the anti-immigration crowd. The state already bars illegal immigrants from taking the exam for driver’s licenses. Undeterred by that little detail, Ketron decided Tennessee should give English-only exams anyway. Then, when it was pointed out that this might upset certain foreign businesses considering making large investments in Tennessee, Ketron amended his bill to permit exams to be given in Spanish, Japanese and Korean. What about, say, the French, Italians or Germans who might move to Tennessee? Well, they’ll just have to learn to read English. That’ll teach ‘em. Some senators naturally wondered about the purpose of the convoluted legislation, but that didn’t last long. Once Ketron stood and gave a patriotic, chest-beating denunciation of illegal immigrants—none of which bore any real relation to the content of his legislation—it became clear that this was all about political grandstanding, and the Senate passed the bill by a vote of 22-5.

http://www.nashvillescene.com/Stories/N ... dex.shtml#

Lt Governor Ramsey is hopeless on the issue of Illegal Immigration. This is my opinion after speaking with him.

English-only bill just grandstanding

March 06, 2007

The Tennessee State Senate passed its own “English First” rule for people taking Tennessee’s driver’s license test by a wide margin Monday night. We can only hope the State House has better sense.

A bill sponsored by Sen. Bill Ketron, a Murfreesboro Republican, would put written driver’s license exams in English-only, unless the applicant has federal documentation showing they are in the country legally. The applicant could then take the test in one of the three languages other than English that are currently offered – Japanese, Korean and Spanish.

The bill, Ketron argues, “codifies” the existing practices of the Department of Safety. In truth, the move looks like grandstanding on behalf of a newly minted Republican majority in the Senate.

Certainly, it is grandstanding the people of Tennessee will accept and even back. The bill purports to deal with illegal immigration. However, it does not effectively change the practice of state government nor does it make our state’s enforcement of immigration laws any tougher. It is as empty a gesture as Gov. Bredesen sending unarmed National Guardsman to the Mexican border.

If Ketron, Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey and others in the Senate want to take up the issue of illegal immigration in earnest they should start by revisiting a scuttled bill from last year’s session that would have empowered the Tennessee Highway Patrol to enforce federal immigration laws. Until substantive policies are pursued, Ketron’s bill is nothing more than a very public display that appears to foreign nationals and their companies considering doing business in our state to be xenophobia wrapped in legislation.

Sadly, the state’s Democrats in the General Assembly are not on sure footing either when it comes to this issue. Bredesen, a Democrat, has come out against it. However, as the measure passed the Senate 22 to 5, quite a few Senate Democrats either voted for it or abstained.

In addition, leading Democrats in both the House and Senate – including arguably the bill’s harshest legislative critic, Sen. Jim Kyle – in 1984 voted for legislation commanding “all communications and publications” produced by the state “shall be in English.” That was a fact Ramsey brought forth last week in a moment of legislative irony.

The people of Tennessee want immigration reform, something our federal government has failed miserably to provide. The kind of legislation Ketron has sponsored is simply deceptive window dressing that changes little to nothing about how illegal immigration is handled by state government.

Bredesen and other Democrats are correct; this bill does send the wrong message about our state. The House should vote it down for that reason. They should also vote it down because passing it would reward political parlor tricks rather than substantive policy reform.

http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/index ... s_id=54988

Senate passes bill to put tests for licenses in English-only
By John Rodgers, jrodgers@nashvillecitypaper.com
March 06, 2007

The state Senate passed a bill 22-5 to put driver’s license tests in English-only Monday, much to the chagrin of the Bredesen administration and some Democrats that say it does not address illegal immigration.

The measure, sponsored by Sen. Bill Ketron (R-Murfreesboro), would put written driver’s license exams in English-only, except for when the applicant has federal documentation that shows they are in the country legally.

At that point, the applicant could take the test in the three languages besides English that are currently offered — Japanese, Korean and Spanish.

Ketron said allowing that exception would “take care” of the concerns of foreign companies investing in Tennessee, such as Bridgestone and Nissan.

“I firmly feel that this sets the right tone in what people want to see in the state of Tennessee,” Ketron told his Senate colleagues in the Senate chamber.

But high-ranking Democrats, such as Gov. Phil Bredesen, Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Matt Kisber, House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh (D-Covington) and Senate Democratic Leader Jim Kyle (D-Memphis), are concerned that the bill sends the wrong message to foreign companies that may want to come to Tennessee and does not affect the problem of illegal immigration.

The Department of Safety’s current policy is to not grant licenses to applicants who cannot prove they are in the country legally.

Monday on the Senate floor, Kyle spoke in opposition to the bill, saying the safety department is already doing “everything this bill purports to do.”

“This bill does not deal with illegal immigration,” Kyle said. “It deals with foreign nationals. That’s what it deals with —— people who are invited to this country.

“I will tell you that a state that holds itself out as being business friendly, and is not friendly to foreign nationals, is not friendly to business.”

But the bill passed 22-5.

Among Davidson County Senators, Sen. Douglas Henry (D-Nashville) was the only one who voted against it. Sen. Thelma Harper (D-Nashville) abstained.

Sen. Joe Haynes (D-Goodlettsville) and Sen. Jack Johnson (R-Brentwood) voted in favor of it.

While the bill got the Senate’s approval, it still faces a Democratic-controlled House whose leadership is against the measure, saying it sends the “wrong message” to foreign companies.

Naifeh has said the bill is a “detriment to what this state should stand for.”

http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/index ... s_id=54982