Might President Trump’s language order affect employee-benefit plans?

President Trump’s order Designating English as the Official Language of The United States revokes President Clinton’s order Improving Access to Services for Persons With Limited English Proficiency. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/designating-english-as-the-official-language-of-the-united-states/

Here’s the revoked order: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2000-08-16/pdf/00-20938.pdf.

Although the order is directed to Federal government agency heads, might this affect anything an employee-benefit plan’s administrator must do (or not do)?

The first thing that comes to mind are the SPD and SMM.  ERISA does not require that these disclosures must be made in languages other that English, but DOL 2520.102-2(c) does have the rules that do.

I’m curious:

If a summary plan description is assembled from the plan-document software the recordkeeper or third-party administrator uses, does the plan sponsor/administrator get a choice about whether to include an offer of assistance in a language other than English?

Or does a service provider routinely put in an offer of assistance in one or more languages other than English, even if 29 C.F.R. § 2520.102-2(c) might not require the offer in the particular plan’s circumstances?

The SPD and SMM are not issued by any agency, but by the plan sponsor.  Logically, the sponsor can issue multi-language documents at its own discretion, although one might interpret the Order as forbidding any federal agency from mandating such multi-language documents.

I wonder if there is any downstream affect, specifically on state/local agencies or govt units.

President Trump’s order states: “[N]othing in this order, however, requires or directs any change in the services provided by any agency. Agency heads should make decisions as they deem necessary to fulfill their respective agencies’ mission and efficiently provide Government services to the American people. Agency heads are not required to amend, remove, or otherwise stop production of documents, products, or other services prepared or offered in languages other than English.”

About State and local governmental plans, laws and customs differ on whether a plan’s administration provides, or deliberately omits, written communications or even an offer of language assistance in a language other than English. That’s nothing new; it’s been so throughout the 40 years I’ve worked with retirement plans. And which States make which choices might not be those one might suppose or guess.

About my query (above):

Some lawyers sometimes advise that it might be unwise to state an offer of language assistance (if applicable law does not require it) if the employer/administrator is not certain it will be ready to fulfill the offered assistance.

In typical plan document/SPD assembly, does a user get a choice about whether to include an offer of language assistance?