This story shows why we don’t need to legislate that government affairs be conducted in English:

Senator Kevin Engler of Farmington used German to ask the senate to adopt a constitutional amendment requiring all official government actions to be done in English….

But senators Jolie Justus of Kansas City and John Smith of St. Louis have run out the clock on Engler’s bill.  They say they wonder why the legislature has to deal with what they think is a trivial issue while important legislation has gotten lost.

Speaking to the senate in German was a cute way to make a point, but it just proved why we don’t need this amendment. That must have been the first time anyone spoke to the senate in German for quite a while. It’s not a problem we encounter on a regular basis.

People usually don’t conduct legislative debates in German for the same reason I don’t write blog posts in Aramaic: they want to be understood by and convincing to English-speakers. I’m guessing Sen. Engler will use English the next time he brings a bill to the floor.