[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.