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Washington, D.C. --- Rep. Rush Holt (NJ-12) issued the following statement today in response to President Bush’s announcement of an increased federal commitment to foreign language training:
“I commend the President for publicly acknowledging our serious gap in foreign language capacity,” said Holt. “When the Defense Intelligence Agency has to borrow Arabic linguists from the New York Police Department—as happened last year—it is a clear sign of how badly we’ve under-invested in our national language capabilities.”
“Our need for a comprehensive and sustained approach to the way we teach foreign languages is clear and urgent,” Holt continued, “and I am pleased the President seems to want to develop such a comprehensive strategy for improving foreign language and cultural education programs.”
Since coming to Congress in 1999, Holt has pushed for improvements in both civilian and military language programs. In the 108th Congress, Holt secured $8 million in funding increases for the National Security Education Program (which provides scholarships for language study), as well as $27 million for a three year pilot program to create a Civilian Linguist Reserve Corps, a program designed to recruit part-time linguists for federal service to meet emergency or surge requirements for translation of documents or electronic broadcasts. Holt’s National Security Language Act (H.R. 115), which he reintroduced at the beginning of the 109th Congress, would encourage partnerships for early language instruction and provide loan forgiveness for college students majoring in critical foreign languages.
Holt’s latest work to strengthen America’s foreign language capabilities both preceded and paralleled some of the initiatives President Bush discussed today.
“Just before Congress adjourned last month, I introduced two bills that would accomplish some of the things that the President called for in his speech today,” said Holt. “One would provide grants to five universities to improve our kindergarten through college language training in critical-need languages. Building such a pipeline is critical for developing a workforce with a higher level off linguistic proficiency and fluency. The other bill would expand the service requirements of the National Security Education Program to develop a multilingual workforce in more government agencies.”
“These bills, as well as my previous foreign language initiatives through the House Education and Workforce and Intelligence committees, are designed to close our foreign language and culture gaps,” Holt continued. “We can neither prevail in the struggle against Al Qaeda nor compete in the global economy if we continue to labor in linguistic and cultural ignorance.”
A complete list of previous Holt foreign language initiatives can be found at http://www.holt.house.gov/display2.cfm?id=11484&type=Home.
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