[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 94 (Wednesday, July 13, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8207-S8210]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


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           LEADERSHIP AND COORDINATION IN LANGUAGE EDUCATION

  Mr. AKAKA. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss the foreign 
language needs of the country, a problem that is receiving renewed 
public attention because of the ongoing war in Iraq and the impact the 
lack of language expertise is having on our foreign policy. As John 
Limbert, president of the American Foreign Service Association, was 
quoted in the Federal Times last month, the shortage of linguists 
``makes our mission of representing the American people that much 
harder.''
  Frankly, I agree with Mr. Limbert. The stability and economic 
vitality of the United States and our national security depend on 
American citizens who are knowledgeable about the world. We need civil 
servants, area experts, diplomats, business people, educators, and 
other public officials with the ability to communicate at an advanced 
level in the languages and understand the cultures of the people with 
whom they interact. An ongoing commitment to maintaining these 
relationships and language expertise helps prevent a crisis from 
occurring and provides diplomatic and language resources when needed.
  My own State of Hawaii is a leader in promoting language education 
and cultural sensitivity. As a gateway to Asian and Pacific nations, we 
in Hawaii understand the importance of knowing other languages and 
cultures, which help to develop strong relationships with other people. 
For example, according to the 2000 Census, more than 300,000 people in 
Hawaii, or about 27 percent of those 5 years and older, spoke a 
language other than English at home. This is compared to about 18 
percent nationwide. In addition, the University of Hawaii is a leader 
in teaching Korean and is the host of one of two National Korean 
Flagship Programs established by the National Security Education 
Program. Hawaii is also host to the internationally recognized East-
West Center, an education and research organization established in 
Hawaii by Congress in 1960, which is a leader in promoting and 
strengthening relations between the United States and the countries of 
the Asia Pacific region.
  In 2000 the Senate Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on International 
Security, Proliferation, and Federal Services, then chaired by Senator 
Cochran, held a hearing on the foreign language needs of the Federal 
Government. At that hearing Ellen Laipson,

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vice chairman of the National Intelligence Council, testified as to the 
language shortfalls in the intelligence community and how these 
shortfalls could impact agency missions, especially in emergency 
situations. For example, a lack of language skills limits analysts' 
insight into a foreign culture which restricts their ability to 
anticipate political instability and warn policymakers about a 
potential trouble spot. In addition, Ms. Laipson testified that 
thousands of technical papers providing details on foreign research and 
development in scientific or technical areas were not being translated 
because of the lack of personnel to interpret the material, which could 
lead to the possibility of ``a technological surprise.''
  Understanding the importance of improving our language capabilities, 
I introduced with Senators Durbin and Thompson the Homeland Security 
Education Act and the Homeland Security Federal Workforce Act. Our 
bills proposed a comprehensive strategy to improve language education, 
as well as science and math education, at the elementary, high school, 
and college levels and to provide incentives for individuals possessing 
such skills as a result of these programs to enter Federal service in 
critical national security positions. The Senate passed the Homeland 
Security Federal Workforce Act on November 5, 2003, and provisions of 
the bill were included in the Intelligence Reform Act of 2004. In 
addition, I successfully added an amendment to the Defense 
Authorization Act for fiscal year 2005 requiring the Department of 
Defense to report on how it will address its language shortfalls in 
both the short and long term. Earlier this year, the Department issued 
its Defense Language Transformation Roadmap which lays out an ambitious 
plan for improving the language education of its employees.
  While Congress has adopted several provisions to improve language 
education, including some that I have proposed, it has not been easy to 
gain a wider acceptance of this need. It has been said that the events 
of September 11, 2001, were a modern day Sputnik moment, demonstrating 
that shortages of critical skills can have dire national security 
consequences. While Sputnik pointed out the importance of science and 
math education, September 11th reminded us that language skills and 
cultural awareness are essential for improving relations with the 
international community and strengthening our national security. 
However, nearly 4 years after that terrible day, we are still without 
sufficient language skills. We still have not learned the lesson that 
the Soviet launch of Sputnik taught us in 1958: investment in education 
is just as important to our national security as investing in weapons 
systems. As such, we need sustained leadership and a coordinated plan 
of action to address this on-going problem and to ensure that this 
Nation never falls short in its language capabilities again or fails to 
communicate effectively with our neighbors around the world.
  That is why I have introduced the National Foreign Language 
Coordination Act with Senators Dodd and Cochran. Our legislation, S. 
1089, is designed to provide the needed leadership and coordination of 
language education. Primarily, the legislation creates a National 
Foreign Language Coordination Council which is composed of the 
secretaries of various executive branch agencies and chaired by a 
national language director. The national language director would be 
appointed by the President and is to be a nationally recognized 
individual with credentials and abilities necessary to create and 
implement long-term solutions to achieving national foreign language 
and cultural competency. By having the key players of the executive 
branch on the Council, I hope that each agency will come away with an 
understanding of what their role is, how they can reach out to their 
stakeholders for input, and become engaged in addressing this problem.
  The Council would be charged with developing and overseeing the 
implementation of a national language strategy. In particular, the 
Council would identify priorities, increase public awareness, advocate 
needed resources, and coordinate efforts within the Federal Government 
to ensure that we are meeting our goal of improved language education 
and cultural understanding. As former Senator and 9/11 Commissioner Bob 
Kerrey recently said, ``Someone in the executive branch has got to say, 
`Here's where we are today, here's where we want to be in five years, 
and here's what it's going to take to get there.' '' The National 
Foreign Language Coordination Act will do just that.
  There have been several articles issued recently that have 
highlighted the need for more language training and the need for 
leadership in this area. I ask that the following articles be printed 
in the Record:
  Tichakorn Hill, Does Anyone Here Speak Arabic? ( or Farsi, or 
Pashto?) The Government's Push to Close the Language Gap, Federal 
Times, June 20, 2005. John Diamond, Terror War Still Short on 
Linguists, USA Today, June 20, 2005. John Diamond, Muslim World Isn't 
Big with U.S. Students, USA Today, June 19, 2005.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                    [From USA Today, Jun. 20, 2005]

Muslim World Isn't Big With U.S. Students

                           (By John Diamond)

       Washington--Despite an expansion of federal efforts to 
     promote learning Arabic and other languages of the Islamic 
     world, there has been no dramatic increase in Americans 
     studying in countries where such languages are spoken, 
     according to the latest statistics on overseas study. That's 
     the case even though the number of Americans studying abroad 
     has more than doubled since the mid-1990s.
       There are some signs of growing interest among American 
     students in learning Arabic, which the U.S. intelligence 
     community hopes will help bolster its ranks with specialists 
     for the war on terrorism.
       But as Karin Ryding, a professor of Arabic at Georgetown 
     University, points out, U.S. intelligence can't get by with 
     ``hothouse'' Arabic speakers who have learned the language 
     sitting in American classrooms. They must travel to the 
     region and immerse themselves to become fluent.
       Overall interest in foreign languages hasn't surged either 
     since the Sept. 11 attacks. The difficulty of learning Arabic 
     and other Middle East languages means it will be years before 
     academia can produce significantly more graduates fluent in 
     languages important to U.S. national security.
       ``It's going to take a good, long while. It's going to be a 
     lot more expensive. And it's a question of whether you can 
     afford to wait,'' says Andrew Krepinevich, head of the Center 
     for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a Washington-based 
     defense think tank.
       Numbers aren't good
       For 2002-03, the first full academic year after 9/11, 1,293 
     Americans studied in predominantly Muslim countries in 
     Africa, the Middle East and Asia. That's a 4.5% increase over 
     the yearly average of 1,237 for the five years leading up to 
     Sept. 11, according to an analysis of figures compiled by the 
     Institute of International Education, which administers 
     several federal study-abroad scholarship programs. The 
     figures cover students who financed their own education as 
     well as those who received private and public scholarships.
       The list of majority-Muslim countries in which students 
     studied is not identical from year to year but typically 
     includes countries in the Middle East and North Africa such 
     as Senegal, Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait, 
     Lebanon and Turkey; and nations in Asia such as Pakistan, 
     Indonesia and Malaysia.
       The institute's figures show that more Americans are 
     studying abroad: 174,629 in 2002-03, up from 84,403 in 1994-
     95. Yet fewer are focusing on foreign languages: Two decades 
     ago, 16.7% of Americans studying abroad listed foreign 
     languages as their primary field of study, according to the 
     institute's figures. A decade ago, it was down to 11.3%; for 
     2002-03, 7.9%.
       ``Despite our growing needs, the number of undergraduate 
     foreign language degrees conferred is only 1% of all 
     degrees,'' Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., said last month. Dodd is 
     sponsoring legislation that would increase federal spending 
     on language and foreign study and create a ``national 
     language director'' to coordinate language programs.
       The stakes are high, according to a January Pentagon 
     report: ``Conflict against enemies speaking less-commonly 
     taught languages and thus the need for foreign language 
     capability will not abate.''
       Language ability is critical not just for fighting wars or 
     spying, says Thomas Farrell, deputy assistant secretary of 
     State for academic programs. It also means having a better 
     knowledge of ``regions of the world that are important to the 
     United States,'' Farrell says. ``We're seeking to 
     demonstrate, especially to countries with Islamic 
     populations, that people in the United States have respect 
     for their societies and want to learn about them.''
       Uptick in Arabic studies
       For years, U.S. students didn't learn much about Arabic. In 
     2002, the latest nationwide figures available, 10,584 
     students were studying Arabic, whether as a major or an 
     elective. That was a 92% increase from 1998 but

[[Page S8209]]

     still amounted to fewer than 1% of all students enrolled in 
     foreign language courses in 2002, according to a report by 
     the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages.
       The Department of Education is spending about $10 million 
     this year for language study centers based in the Middle 
     East, U.S. language development centers and scholarships for 
     study abroad. The Pentagon is spending $3.6 million for 
     Middle East language scholarships and other language 
     programs. Some of the money is tied to promises that students 
     will commit to jobs in national security.
       The State Department handles the bulk of federal money for 
     language scholarships through its Fulbright programs for 
     undergraduates and scholars. Last year, the department spent 
     $86 million on Fulbright and other programs out of a total 
     education and cultural exchange budget of $231 million. Not 
     all of that $86 million was focused on Muslim countries, 
     however.
       Concerned that no one coordinates the federal programs, a 
     group of senators--including Dodd, Thad Cochran, R-Miss., and 
     Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii--wants to start a National Foreign 
     Language Coordination Council.
       For now, U.S. military and intelligence agencies compete 
     with one another for a small pool of qualified candidates. 
     Arabic professor John Walbridge of the University of Indiana 
     is worried about the push to fill hiring quotas.
       ``They're desperate for people,'' Walbridge says. ``They're 
     recruiting people who by no reasonable standard are ready to 
     do intelligence work using Arabic.''
                                  ____


                    [From USA Today, June 20, 2005]

                  Terror War Still Short on Linguists

                           (By John Diamond)

       Washington.--Nearly four years after the Sept. 11 attacks, 
     the federal government has created a profusion of programs to 
     train students in languages and cultures important in the war 
     on terrorism. But government leaders and language experts say 
     the effort is an uncoordinated jumble too slow to produce 
     measurable results.
       ``We're not there, and we're not moving fast enough,'' says 
     Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., chairman of the House 
     Intelligence Committee.
       Since 9/11, Congress and the White House have pumped money 
     into new and existing programs for training in Arabic and 
     other Middle Eastern languages and cultures. Annual spending 
     has jumped from about $41 million in 2001 to $100 million 
     today. While the funding and programs have grown, the results 
     are, so far, insufficient, according to Sen. Chris Dodd, D-
     Conn. The government needs to hire 34,000 foreign-language 
     specialists, particularly Arabic speakers, for homeland 
     security, defense and intelligence agencies, he says.
       The effort to produce more speakers of Arabic and other 
     languages of the Islamic world is needed because many 
     Americans fluent in these languages have difficulty getting 
     security clearances if they have relatives in the region. 
     Producing a ``homegrown'' speaker of Arabic, with its 
     different alphabet and many dialects, can take 10 years, says 
     professor John Walbridge of the University of Indiana, ``if 
     you apply yourself.''
       No government agency coordinates this effort, and there are 
     no readily available statistics on how many students get 
     federal money intended to produce more speakers of Arabic, 
     Urdu and other strategic languages and more experts on the 
     Islamic world.
       Based on public records and interviews with relevant 
     officials, about $9.5 million in federal money goes to 
     programs designed specifically to produce job candidates for 
     U.S. intelligence and other national security agencies. Only 
     about 40% of that total, roughly $3.8 million, is focused on 
     the Middle East.
       The number of students in these programs--named for current 
     and former chairmen of the Senate Intelligence Committee--is 
     modest: 150 in the Pat Roberts Intelligence Scholars Program 
     and 230 in the David Boren Scholarship program. About one-
     third of the students focus on Middle Eastern languages.
       ``Someone in the executive branch has got to say, Here's 
     where we are today, here's where we want to be in five years, 
     and here's what it's going to take to get there,'' ' says Bob 
     Kerrey, a Democrat who served on the federal commission that 
     investigated 9/11. That panel pointed out last year that only 
     six students received undergraduate degrees in Arabic in 
     2002.
       Walbridge and other Arabic scholars agree that living in 
     the Middle East is essential to becoming fluent. But the 
     number of Americans studying in predominantly Muslim 
     countries has remained about the same as pre-Sept. 11 levels. 
     In 2002-03, the most recent year for which figures are 
     available, fewer than 1,300 Americans were studying in Muslim 
     countries, or less than 1% of the Americans studying abroad.
       ``As a nation, we just don't have any sort of organized 
     language policy, and it shows,'' says Kirk Belnap, director 
     of a federally funded National Middle Eat Language Resource 
     Center at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
                                  ____


                [From the Federal Times, June 20, 2005]

     Does Anyone Here Speak Arabic? Or Farsi, or Pashto . . . The 
              Government's Push To Close the Language Gap

                          (By Tichakorn Hill)

       When a congressman asked David Kay, the former head of the 
     U.S. team searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, 
     how many on his 1,400-person team spoke Arabic and understood 
     the technology of weapons of mass destruction, the answer was 
     discouraging.
       ``I could count on the fingers of one hand,'' Rep. Rush 
     Holt, D-N.J., recalled Kay as saying about a year ago.
       Similarly, Holt asked special forces who were combing 
     through Afghan mountain ranges for Osama bin Laden how many 
     of them spoke the local language of Pashto. They said they 
     picked up a little while they were there.
       ``If Osama bin Laden is truly American public enemy No. 1, 
     how do we expect to track him down if we cannot speak the 
     languages of the people who are hiding him?'' Holt said.
       Whether it is military troops, intelligence analysts, 
     translators, interpreters, or just federal employees 
     delivering services to an increasingly diverse American 
     population, there is a troubling shortage of people with 
     foreign language skills. And the shortage is most critical in 
     Middle Eastern and South Asian languages: Arabic; Pashto; 
     Dari, which is spoken in Afghanistan; Farsi, spoken in Iran; 
     Kurdish, spoken in Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Armenia and Syria; and 
     Urdu, spoken in India and Pakistan.
       The consequences, say experts, are disturbing. The problem 
     threatens government efforts to keep the peace and rebuild 
     infrastructure in Iraq, translate foreign documents and 
     interpret foreign conversations that could prove to be 
     valuable intelligence, explain U.S. policies to foreign 
     populations, investigate terrorists, and track down illegal 
     aliens.
       The shortage of linguists ``makes our mission of 
     representing the American people that much harder,'' said 
     John Limbert, president of the American Foreign Service 
     Association and a former ambassador to Mauritania. ``Most of 
     that mission involves communication--speaking and listening 
     to what others are telling us. I don't see how we can do that 
     without knowing the language of those with whom we are 
     communicating.''
       The Defense and State departments, intelligence agencies, 
     the FBI and many other agencies were suffering severe 
     shortages of linguists even before 9/11. The FBI, for 
     example, complained to Congress in 2000 that it had large 
     stockpiles of audio tapes and documents awaiting translation. 
     The Defense Department didn't have a single Dari-speaking 
     employee. And it had only one Marine and one sailor who spoke 
     Pashto.
       Kevin Hendzel, a spokesman for the American Translators 
     Association, estimates it will take intelligence agencies 
     between 10 and 15 years to catch up in translating tons of 
     materials recovered from Iraq and Afghanistan. ``As a 
     society, we pay a huge price for not being competent in 
     foreign languages. This is particularly true in the national 
     security area where the people who want to do us harm do not 
     speak English,'' he said.
       Federal agencies are expected to hire more than 10,000 
     contract and staff linguists this year.
       But while hiring of linguists since 9/11 has exploded, it 
     still hasn't kept pace with the government's needs--
     especially for people who know Arabic and South Asian 
     languages.
       The problem
       Federal managers blame the American education system.
       According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 
     out of 2 million college graduates in 2004, only 17 earned 
     bachelor's or advanced degrees in Arabic. Only 206 earned 
     degrees in Chinese, the world's most popular language.
       ``Academia is not producing enough of the right kind of 
     linguists fast enough,'' said an FBI official. ``And we 
     simply cannot wait for the education system to catch up.''
       But the government is trying to kick-start the system. Last 
     year the Defense Department began awarding grants to 
     universities for foreign language studies in Chinese, Arabic, 
     Korean and Russian.
       And in Congress, Holt introduced this year the National 
     Security Language Act, which would subsidize colleges and 
     universities that teach critical languages and offer 
     intensive study programs overseas. The bill, which has 43 
     cosponsors, also would repay student loans for those who 
     study critical foreign languages and then work for federal 
     agencies or as elementary or secondary school language 
     teachers.
       The recruiting challenge
       In their rush to recruit people with hard-to-find language 
     skills, agency managers are trying a variety of tactics.
       They hold job fairs in minority communities, such as Arabic 
     communities in California and Michigan. They advertise in 
     foreign-language newspapers, offer thousands of dollars in 
     sign-up bonuses, and recruit at colleges and universities 
     where needed languages are taught.
       But there are a lot of factors working against them. One is 
     stiff competition for a limited pool of candidates.
       ``We're always in competition with other federal agencies 
     and the private sector for that talent,'' said Reginald 
     Wells, deputy commissioner for human resources at the Social 
     Security Administration.
       Many candidates are foreign-born and foreign-educated, 
     which presents another challenge for agencies trying to 
     verify their credentials.
       And as if finding people who speak difficult languages is 
     not difficult enough, finding

[[Page S8210]]

     people who know those languages at a professional or 
     technical level is even harder.
       ``Many of our assignments are highly technical and they 
     [native speakers] simply do not have vocabulary to move 
     between the two languages. That's where our challenges lie,'' 
     said Brenda Spraque, the director of Office of Language 
     Services at the State Department.
       Not all candidates who meet the grade want to work for, 
     say, the Foreign Service and be posted far from their 
     families, said Nancy Serpa, former director of the Human 
     Resources for Recruitment, Examination and Employment at the 
     State Department.
       ``The Foreign Service is not a career for everyone, and 
     finding people who want to spend their career overseas away 
     from their family is very difficult to begin with, even 
     though we have a lot of people who take the Foreign Service 
     test,'' Serpa said.
       National Security Agency managers find that many candidates 
     are reluctant to move even to the agency's Maryland 
     headquarters.
       ``We may be successful in attracting people to the type of 
     work we do and the opportunities and possibilities we have 
     available, but we're not always successful in encouraging 
     them to move to Columbia or Baltimore,'' said John Taflan, 
     NSA human resources director.
       Getting new employees a security clearance is another 
     hurdle.
       ``We require, for all our full-time positions and even some 
     of our contract positions, that people have the ability to 
     obtain a security clearance, and that's become extremely 
     difficult for those who are naturalized American citizens,'' 
     Spraque said. ``That limits your pool to a large extent.''
       Hiring binge.
       Despite the recruiting challenges, agencies have been 
     hiring.
       Since 9/11, the FBI has hired nearly 1,000 linguists and 
     plans to hire 274 more next fiscal year. Currently it has 
     nearly 1,400 contract and full-time linguists who speak 100 
     languages. Ninety-five of those linguists are native speakers 
     of their languages. The bureau increased its linguists by 69 
     percent and the number of those in critical languages, such 
     as Arabic, increasing by 200 percent.
       The State Department this year is hiring nearly 400 Foreign 
     Service generalists, many of whom will get training to speak 
     another language. It's also hiring translators and 
     interpreters. Many of those new hires will staff new 
     embassies in Baghdad, Iraq, and Kabul, Afghanistan; and a new 
     liaison office in Tripoli, Libya. Currently the department 
     has about 7,000 employees speaking 60 languages working in 
     the United States and at 265 posts abroad.
       Likewise, the National Security Agency is aggressively 
     recruiting: Currently at 35,000 employees, the agency plans 
     to hire 1,500 people every year until 2010, and many will 
     become language analysts. It offers sign-up bonuses of up to 
     20 percent of a person's salary for those who speak critical 
     languages. NSA also hires 50 to 200 bilinguals a year whom it 
     then trains to speak a third language.
       More training.
       The shortage of linguists prompted the Defense Department 
     to overhaul its language program. The department in April 
     unveiled a plan, called the Defense Language Transformation 
     Roadmap, to build up its foreign language skills. It includes 
     directing money to colleges and universities to teach 
     languages. Also, the department plans to invest $45 million 
     more than current levels--$195 million in fiscal 2006--in its 
     Defense Language Institute. The department also will build a 
     database of active-duty personnel, civilians, reservists and 
     retirees who speak foreign languages.
       ``9/11 really changed our whole orientation to understand 
     that this is a major issue that's going to be with us for a 
     long time,'' said Gail McGinn, Defense deputy undersecretary 
     for plans. ``It's going to take a long time to solve it.''
       Today, Defense has nearly 84,000 military linguists who 
     speak about 250 languages and dialects--up from 72,000 in 
     2000. The military services plan to train about 2,300 
     linguists this year. The Air Force is the most active and 
     plans to train 1,500 military linguists this year.
       Agencies that cannot hire or train enough people with 
     foreign language skills borrow them from other agencies or 
     contract for them.
       Congress in 2003 also created the National Virtual 
     Translation Center, an interagency clearinghouse that lets 
     agencies share translators with each other or to seek the 
     services of translators in the private sector and academia. 
     The center also performs translation work for intelligence 
     agencies.
       Federal contracting for people with language skills has 
     taken off since 9/11. But as demand has shot up, so have 
     labor rates.
       Before 9/11, a linguist speaking Arabic might get paid $15 
     or $20 an hour. Now, rates are about double that. And for 
     those with security clearances and expertise, rates are up to 
     between $70 and $80 an hour. A contract linguist working in 
     Iraq now can make $150,000 a year, Hendzel said.
       Not all agencies are willing to pay so much, he said. Some 
     want to settle for $20 an hour and hire someone who can speak 
     a foreign language but may not be certified or have 
     experience or expertise in a particular field. By doing that, 
     Hendzel said agencies risk getting poor-quality work that 
     could undermine their missions.
       ``Mistranslation or distortion are as dangerous as a lack 
     of translation,'' he said.

  Mr. AKAKA. We all understand the importance of language education and 
cultural understanding in this country; we just need to figure out how 
we make it happen. I am confident the National Foreign Language 
Coordination Council will provide the needed leadership and 
coordination to reach our goal.

                          ____________________