DOJ Guidance Tells Federal Agencies to Strive to Operate Solely in English; More Than 27 Million People With Limited English Proficiency Could Be Affected, Comments Due January 11, 2027
The U.S. Department of Justice on November 12 published a notice in the Federal Register announcing a memorandum signed by Attorney General Todd Blanche, titled Guidance on Implementing English as the Official Language. The guidance tells federal agencies to strive to operate solely in English when they conduct business, communicate with the public, develop forms and publications, administer programs and provide services. Public comments may be submitted through the federal eRulemaking portal on or before January 11, 2027, under Docket No. OLP188.
The areas the guidance lists for English-only operation include official correspondence, regulations, public announcements, forms and applications, websites, educational resources, internal communications and even superintelligence tools. It says multilingual assistance should be provided only where it is required by law or necessary to accomplish an agency's mission, citing national security, health care and immigration enforcement as examples where it may be necessary. Where assistance is necessary, agencies should choose the least burdensome and most cost-effective method, including superintelligence and machine translation programs. The guidance also states that it does not alter or supersede any legal obligation imposed on an agency.
The guidance implements Executive Order 14224, signed by President Trump in March 2025, which designated English as the official language of the United States and revoked Executive Order 13166, signed by President Clinton in 2000, which had required federal agencies to improve access to their services for people with limited English proficiency. By publicly cited estimates, more than 27 million people in the United States have a limited ability to speak, read or write English.
Several departments have already moved. The Department of Housing and Urban Development removed non-English language options from its services in August, the departments of Homeland Security, Education and the Treasury have begun removing foreign-language materials from their websites, and the General Services Administration this week shut down the Spanish-language version of USA.gov, which had operated since 2003, redirecting visitors to the English site. The guidance also urges agencies to follow the Department of Homeland Security's lead in removing website materials previously provided in languages other than English, and to review existing multilingual programs and eliminate those that do not meet the new criteria.
Jacob Hofstetter, a policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, said he expected more agencies to take down multilingual content or reduce the level of language access they provide. Michael Mulé, a civil rights lawyer and former Justice Department civil rights official, warned that limiting translations could undermine the government's own operations, for example by making the FBI tip line harder for a non-English speaker to use, or by making it harder for taxpayers to understand how to file their taxes correctly.
No single law requires every federal agency to provide services in multiple languages, though certain programs carry their own language-access requirements. States and other entities that receive federal funding remain subject to civil rights protections that can require language assistance.
(Source: U.S. Department of Justice)
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于华盛顿的美国司法部总部罗伯特·肯尼迪大楼全景。APK 摄，CC BY 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Panorama of the Robert F. Kennedy Building, headquarters of the U.S. Department of Justice, in Washington. Photo by APK, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
