[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 32 (Monday, August 14, 2000)]
[Pages 1852-1853]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
<R04>
Executive Order 13166--Improving Access to Services for Persons With
Limited English Proficiency
August 11, 2000
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
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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, 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.
William J. Clinton
The White House,
August 11, 2000.
[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., August 15,
2000]
Note: This Executive order will be published in the Federal Register
on August 16.