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[Federal Register: August 16, 2000 (Volume 65, Number 159)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Page 50119-50122]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr16au00-137]
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Part V
The President
Executive Order 13166--Improving Access to Services for Persons With
Limited English Proficiency
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Department of Justice
Enforcement of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964--National
Origin Discrimination Against Persons With Limited English Proficiency;
Notice
Presidential Documents
___________________________________________________________________
Title 3--
The President
[[Page 50121]]
Executive Order 13166 of August 11, 2000
Improving Access to Services for Persons With
Limited English Proficiency
By the authority vested in me as President by the
Constitution and the laws of the United States of
America, and to improve access to federally conducted
and federally assisted programs and activities for
persons who, as a result of national origin, are
limited in their English proficiency (LEP), it is
hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Goals.
The Federal Government provides and funds an array
of services that can be made accessible to otherwise
eligible persons who are not proficient in the English
language. The Federal Government is committed to
improving the accessibility of these services to
eligible LEP persons, a goal that reinforces its
equally important commitment to promoting programs and
activities designed to help individuals learn English.
To this end, each Federal agency shall examine the
services it provides and develop and implement a system
by which LEP persons can meaningfully access those
services consistent with, and without unduly burdening,
the fundamental mission of the agency. Each Federal
agency shall also work to ensure that recipients of
Federal financial assistance (recipients) provide
meaningful access to their LEP applicants and
beneficiaries. To assist the agencies with this
endeavor, the Department of Justice has today issued a
general guidance document (LEP Guidance), which sets
forth the compliance standards that recipients must
follow to ensure that the programs and activities they
normally provide in English are accessible to LEP
persons and thus do not discriminate on the basis of
national origin in violation of title VI of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964, as amended, and its implementing
regulations. As described in the LEP Guidance,
recipients must take reasonable steps to ensure
meaningful access to their programs and activities by
LEP persons.
Sec. 2. Federally Conducted Programs and Activities.
Each Federal agency shall prepare a plan to improve
access to its federally conducted programs and
activities by eligible LEP persons. Each plan shall be
consistent with the standards set forth in the LEP
Guidance, and shall include the steps the agency will
take to ensure that eligible LEP persons can
meaningfully access the agency's programs and
activities. Agencies shall develop and begin to
implement these plans within 120 days of the date of
this order, and shall send copies of their plans to the
Department of Justice, which shall serve as the central
repository of the agencies' plans.
Sec. 3. Federally Assisted Programs and Activities.
Each agency providing Federal financial assistance
shall draft title VI guidance specifically tailored to
its recipients that is consistent with the LEP Guidance
issued by the Department of Justice. This agency-
specific guidance shall detail how the general
standards established in the LEP Guidance will be
applied to the agency's recipients. The agency-specific
guidance shall take into account the types of services
provided by the recipients, the individuals served by
the recipients, and other factors set out in the LEP
Guidance. Agencies that already have developed title VI
guidance that the Department of Justice determines is
consistent with the LEP Guidance shall examine their
existing guidance, as well as their programs and
activities, to determine if additional guidance is
necessary to comply with this order. The Department of
Justice shall consult with the agencies in creating
their guidance and, within 120 days of the date of this
order,
[[Page 50122]]
each agency shall submit its specific guidance to the
Department of Justice for review and approval.
Following approval by the Department of Justice, each
agency shall publish its guidance document in the
Federal Register for public comment.
Sec. 4. Consultations.
In carrying out this order, agencies shall ensure
that stakeholders, such as LEP persons and their
representative organizations, recipients, and other
appropriate individuals or entities, have an adequate
opportunity to provide input. Agencies will evaluate
the particular needs of the LEP persons they and their
recipients serve and the burdens of compliance on the
agency and its recipients. This input from stakeholders
will assist the agencies in developing an approach to
ensuring meaningful access by LEP persons that is
practical and effective, fiscally responsible,
responsive to the particular circumstances of each
agency, and can be readily implemented.
Sec. 5. Judicial Review.
This order is intended only to improve the internal
management of the executive branch and does not create
any right or benefit, substantive or procedural,
enforceable at law or equity by a party against the
United States, its agencies, its officers or employees,
or any person.
(Presidential Sig.)
THE WHITE HOUSE,
August 11, 2000.
[FR Doc. 00-20938
Filed 8-15-00; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P
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