36 US Representatives with Spanish-Language Web Pages

31 Democrats and five Republicans provide some Spanish-language content on their official U.S. House websites

While the U.S. Senate immigration bill remains in limbo – and, if passed, its prospects, seemingly dim in the House – a few dozen U.S. Representatives are making a public effort to reach out to their Spanish-speaking constituents on their official House websites – and almost all are Democrats.

A Smart Politics content analysis of official House websites of the nation’s 434 U.S. Representatives finds that approximately one in 12 provide web pages with Spanish-language content (8 percent, or 36 members) with Democrats doings so at eight times the rate of Republicans.

A total of 31 of the 200 Democratic U.S. Representatives have set aside web pages for Spanish-speaking constituents, or 16 percent of the caucus.

That compares to just five of the 234 Republicans in office, or 2 percent of the GOP caucus.

Two of these five Republicans serve in the Top 10 most heavily-populated Hispanic GOP districts in the nation: Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL-27, #1, 73 percent), Steve Pearce (NM-02, #5, 52 percent), and Buck McKeon (CA-25, #9, 38 percent).

The other Republicans providing Spanish-language web pages are Mike Coffman (CO-06) and Ted Poe (TX-02).

(Note: Additional U.S. Representatives, such as Republican Gary Miller (CA-31), simply link to a Spanish-language version of their sites via Google Translate, discussed in more detail below, but not counted as a “Spanish-language” site).

For a regional breakdown:

· 16 districts are in the Western region of the country: AZ-03, CA-14, CA-18, CA-20, CA-25, CA-34, CA-38, CA-40, CA-43, CA-44, CA-46, CO-02, CO-06, OR-01, OR-03, NM-02.

· Nine are in the Northeast: CT-04, MA-03, MD-05, NJ-06, NJ-08, NY-07, NY-13, NY-15, NY-17.

· Nine are in the South: FL-09, FL-14, FL-27, GA-04, TX-02, TX-15, TX-28, TX-29, TX-33.

· Just two are in the Midwest: IL-04, IL-05.

Most members providing Spanish-language content are actually not members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Of the 24 U.S. Representatives in the CHC, just 11 have sections of their website devoted to Spanish-language readers: Democrats Raúl Grijalva (AZ-03), Xavier Becerra (CA-34), Linda Sanchez (CA-38), Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-40), Lorretta Sanchez (CA-46), Luis Guitiérrez (IL-04), Albio Sires (NJ-08), Nydia Velázquez (NY-07), José Serrano (NY-15), Rubén Hinojosa (TX-15), and Henry Cuellar (TX-28).

The degree to which Spanish-language content is incorporated into these House websites varies greatly.

Some U.S. Representatives provide several pages of information such as Charlie Rangel (NY-13), Nita Lowey (NY-17), and Rubén Hinojosa (TX-15).

Others simply offer a biographical page of the member of Congress, like Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (MD-05), Nikki Tsongas (MA-03), and Anna Eschoo (CA-18).

A few don’t set aside stand-alone pages but do incorporate Spanish-language press releases alongside those released in English, like Democrat Alan Grayson (FL-09) and Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL-27).

In addition to Spanish-language content, four U.S. Representatives also make content available in other languages.

· Democrat Jackie Spier’s (CA-14) biography is also published in Tagalong and Mandarin.

· Democrat Loretta Sanchez (CA-46) offers her biography and some press releases in Vietnamese.

· Democrat Mike Quigley (IL-05) also offers his biography in Polish.

Meanwhile, Democrat Adam Schiff (CA-28) links from his English language site to employ a Google Translate tool that generates a (rough) translation of his content into Armenian, Chinese (simplified) and Spanish.

The Google Translate feature is a quick and easy way to provide information to foreign-language speaking populations (though not always conveying a precise message or utilizing proper grammar).

In addition to Schiff, House members such as Republicans Jeff Denham (CA-10) and Gary Miller (CA-31) and Democrats Jared Polis (CO-02) and Earl Blumenauer (OR-03) also feature Google Translate links on their House websites.

Included among the three-dozen U.S. Representatives with foreign-language web pages are two Democrats whose Spanish pages are currently under construction: Democrat Maxine Waters (CA-43) and Suzanne Bonamici (OR-01).

* Update: Representative John Larson (CT-01) recently launched a new House website which includes two Spanish-language web pages.

U.S. Representatives with Foreign-Language Content on Official House Websites

District	Representative	Party	Language
AZ-03	Raúl Grijalva	Democrat	Spanish
CA-14	Jackie Spier	Democrat	Spanish, Mandarin, Tagalong
CA-18	Anna Eschoo	Democrat	Spanish
CA-20	Sam Farr	Democrat	Spanish
CA-25	Buck McKeon	Republican	Spanish
CA-34	Xavier Becerra	Democrat	Spanish
CA-38	Linda Sanchez	Democrat	Spanish
CA-40	Lucille Roybal-Allard	Democrat	Spanish
CA-43	Maxine Waters**	Democrat	Spanish
CA-44	Janice Hahn	Democrat	Spanish
CA-46	Lorretta Sanchez	Democrat	Spanish, Vietnamese
CO-01	Dianna DeGette	Democrat	Spanish
CO-06	Mike Coffman	Republican	Spanish
CT-04	Jim Himes	Democrat	Spanish
FL-09	Alan Grayson	Democrat	Spanish
FL-14	Cathy Castor	Democrat	Spanish
FL-27	Ileana Ros-Lehtinen	Republican	Spanish
GA-04	Hank Johnson	Democrat	Spanish
IL-04	Luis Guitiérrez	Democrat	Spanish
IL-05	Mike Quigley	Democrat	Spanish, Polish
MA-03	Nikki Tsongas	Democrat	Spanish
MD-05	Steny Hoyer	Democrat	Spanish
NJ-06	Frank Pallone	Democrat	Spanish
NJ-08	Albio Sires	Democrat	Spanish
NM-02	Steve Pearce	Republican	Spanish
NY-07	Nydia Velázquez	Democrat	Spanish
NY-13	Charlies Rangel	Democrat	Spanish
NY-15	José Serrano	Democrat	Spanish
NY-17	Nita Lowey	Democrat	Spanish
OR-01	Suzanne Bonamici**	Democrat	Spanish
OR-03	Earl Blumenauer	Democrat	Spanish
TX-02	Ted Poe	Republican	Spanish
TX-15	Rubén Hinojosa	Democrat	Spanish
TX-28	Henry Cuellar	Democrat	Spanish
TX-29	Gene Green	Democrat	Spanish
TX-33	Marc Veasey	Democrat	Spanish

Note: Does not include U.S. Representatives that simply provides a link to Google Translate. ** Spanish-language pages under construction. Table compiled by Smart Politics.

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