COLUMBIA --- Driver's license tests and all other government paperwork would be in English only under a proposal approved by a Senate panel Thursday.

"We want to make sure that in the day-to-day business of government, English is the language," said Sen. Jim Ritchie, R-Spartanburg, the head of the four-member panel.

The legislation now moves to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is headed by the bill's sponsor, Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell. He wants to stop the Department of Motor Vehicles from distributing driver's manuals in Spanish and offering driver's license tests in German, French and Spanish.

The bill might exclude some school forms or medical-care applications, which by federal law require translations.

Conchita Cruz, of the Coalition for New South Carolinians, said it would also suggest that South Carolina is not welcoming to international business.

Mr. Ritchie said people in the state on business can drive with a license issued in their country or get an international driver's license.

Sen. Vincent Sheheen cast the only no vote.

"The only people we're affecting are people here legally who are not able to read English? From what I've heard, we don't have a real problem," the Kershaw Democrat said.

Another proposal approved by the panel asks Congress to call a constitutional convention on immigration. Congress' failure to address illegal immigration has burdened states that must pay to educate, provide emergency health care, protect and imprison people not in the country legally, Mr. McConnell said. For a constitutional convention to take place, 33 states would have to call for it.

The proposal says the convention would discuss amendments giving states the ability to arrest and deport illegal immigrants, deny them government services and deny citizenship to children born to them.