cspan iii live here on capitol hill where things are scheduled to get underway with the senate homeland security subcommittee. looking at a shortage of foreign language speakers in the federal government. the senate floor is in today. you can watch them on companion network cspan 2. they're taking up an fda user fee as well as a judicial nomination. two procedural votes in the senate scheduled for 5:30 today. if you want to watch president obama's news conference edging the two day nato summit in chicago. that will be live on cspan at 4:350 eastern. 4:30 eastern.

just got a look at some of the people who are going to be testifying before the senate homeland security subcommittee. some officials from the fbi we'll hear from the defense and state department and the department of education. they'll be looking at how language skill deficiencies impact national security and what they can do to improve the united states' language capabilities. and let you know that the senate is in right now on cspan 2.

they're going to be considering fda reauthorization of a user fee for the fda. also taking up a judicial nomination. that's going to happen at 4:30 with votes scheduled at 5:30. we're going to hear from president obama later on. 4:30 he'll be closing the nato summit in chicago with a news conference. we'll have that live on cspan at 40030. later tonight president obama will be speaking at the commencement ceremony at joplin, missouri. this month marks 1 years since tornadoes killed 160 people including students and staff at the school. we'll have the president's remarks from the high school at 9:15 eastern.

thank you, all of you, for being here.

i called this hearing of the subcommittee on oversight of government management, federal work force, and the district of columbia to order. i want to welcome our witnesses. aloha and thank you for being here. as chairman of the subcommittee i have held seven, seven oversight hearings that emphasize the need to build a federal government's foreign language skills from developing a foreign language strategy to improving u.s. diplomatic readiness. this is my final hearing on this topic. today we will review the importance of foreign languages to our national security and our

economy as well. we'll also examine the state of the federal government's foreign language capabilities and consider ways to improve our nation's language capacity. last year we marked the tenth anniversary of the september 11th terrorist attacks. this tragic event exposed our nation's language shortfalls. the 9/11 commission raised concerns about the shortage of personnel who needed middle eastern language skills at both the fbi and cia which hindered our understanding of the threat. these agencies as well as the departments of state, homeland

security, and defense continue to experience shortages of people skilled in hard-to-learn languages due to a limited pool of americans to recruit from. because of these shortages, agencies are forced to fill language designated positions with employees that do not have those skills. agencies then have to spend extra time and funds training employees in these languages. as u.s. businesses of all sizes look to expand, they need employees with the foreign language skills and cultural knowledge to access overseas markets. our national and economic

security's closely linked to howell our schools prepare students to succeed in a global environment. experts indicate that learning languages starting at k-12 levels develop higher language proficiency than those starting in college. the federal government must partner with schools, colleges, and the private sector to address this ongoing challenge as its root cause. our nation's failure to adequately invest in language education starting at early ages. even in a difficult budget environment we must fund important international

education and foreign language study programs to build the pipeline to a 21st century work force including the foreign language assistance program. we must make sure that budget cuts are not at the extense of strategic national security interests. shortsighted cuts to programs like paddle 6 could severely undermine the progress we have made in this area. today we'll hear about agencies' progress on their language capacities, however, i believe agencies can do more to coordinate and share best practices in recruiting, retaining, and training personnel. furthermore, i strongly believe

that a coordinated national effort among all levels of government, industry, and academia is needed to tackle the problem before us. if we work together, we can improve our nation's language capacity and effectively confront the challenges to our nation's security and economic prosperity. i look forward to hearing from our witnesses today and continuing the discussion on how we can address our nation's language needs. former senator david borren from oklahoma who has been a long-time advocate on this issue

was a friend while he was here was kind enough to provide a statement for this hearing. he continues to urge that we invest in comprehensive language training and to address this language crisis. i'd like to submit this, and i will submit his statement for the record. i look forward to hearing from our first panel of witnesses and welcome, again, you here today. the honorable eduardo ochoa, who is assistant secretary of the post office -- office of post secondary education at the department of education. the honorable linda

thomas-greenfield, the director general of foreign service and director of human resources at the department of state. dr. laura junor, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for readiness at the department of defense. ms. tracey north, who is the deputy assistant director of the intelligence operations branch for the federal bureau of investigation at the department of justice. and mr. glen nordin, the principle foreign language and area advisor for the office of the undersecretary of defense intelligence at the department of defense. he is representing the director

of national intelligence. as you know, it is the custom of this subcommittee to swear in all witnesses. i would ask all of you to please stand and raise your right hands. do you swear that the testimony you are about to give this subcommittee is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you god? >> i do. >> thank you. let it be noted for the record that the witnesses answered in the affirmative. before we start i want you to know that your full written statements will be made a part of the record, and i'd also like to remind you to please limit all remarks to five minutes. mr. ochoa, will you please

proceed with your statement. >> thank you. good afternoon, chairman akaka. thank you for the opportunity to appear before the subcommittee today. my name is eduardo ochoa, i'm the assistant secretary for post secondary education. i am pleased to provide testimony for this hearing on national security and federal foreign language capabilities. i particularly appreciate your focus on this issue as i have direct experience having been born in buenos aires argentina where i attended bilingual schools until my family moved to the united states during the junior year of high school. i personally understand the importance of foreign language programs as they not only provide students with a better understanding of other cultures, but they provided me with a unique insight of my own culture and language. before providing an overview of our programs, let me express the department's appreciation of your strong, long standing support for the advancement of foreign language learning in

this country. we believe it is imperative we improve our capabilities. in keeping this belief the department adopted a strategy to get two goals. we want to advance our nation's international priorities. a key objective of our plan, which is particularly relevant to the topic of today's hearing, is to increase the global competencies of all u.s. students. the need for these competencies which we think of as 21st century skills apply to the world is clear. both for u.s. civil society and for our nation's work force and for our national security. right now just 30% of u.s. secondary students and 8% of post secondary students are enrolled in a foreign language course. a long way from the multi-lingual societies of so many of our economic competitors. 2/3 of americans aged 18 to 24 cannot find iraq on the map of

the middle east. african-americans and latinos continue to be underrepresented amongst those who study abroad. the development of these skills must start early in elementary and secondary education. u.s. colleges and universities have a responsibility to help students further develop and deepen these skills, but waiting until post secondary education to start is too late. this means that school systems at all levels from elementary to post secondary must place a far greater emphasis on helping students understand their responsibilities as global citizens. we believe that engaging students in these ways will help our nation meet the president's 2020 college attainment goal with more graduates ready to lead us well into the 21st century. i want to take some time to talk briefly about several programs funded by the department through our office of post secondary education that support foreign learning. we support the teaching and learning of foreign languages through a portfolio of 14 discretionary grant programs under title 6 and the full

bright hayes act. 9 of these programs receive $66.6 million to operate domestically and four programs received $7.5 million to operate internationally. one of the primary roles of the title 6 and full bright hayes programs is meeting the national need for expertise and competence in foreign languages and in foreign area and international studies. the national resource centers supported under title 6 represent the department's primary mechanism for developing u.s. language and area expertise on college campuses. the 127 current grantee institution provide instruction, research and development in over 110 less commonly taught languages from all world areas. these programs play an important part in meeting the needs of the nation's federal work force, national security, and economic competitiveness for individuals with foreign language skills. in addition to our title 6 national resource centers, the companion program, title 6 foreign language and area studies fellowships, or glass,

provides funds to colleges and universities to assist undergraduate and graduate students in foreign language and area studies. in fiscal year 2011, 735 glass students attended summer language programs overseas. title 6 overseas. title vi funding, in 2006 alone, 11 centers worked with 100,000 faculty, scholars, teachers, and students. the federal investment in foreign languages in area studies is critical to developing and sustaining the pipeline of individuals with foreign language and international education skills that are needed to address national security and economic competitiveness needs. these programs also helped to enhance the capacity of educational institutions and agencies at all levels, including k-12 and post secondary, to effectively teach and learn foreign languages. we are committed to continuing to improve and refocus our programs to support the goals of the department's international

strategy, to strernten u.s. education, and advance the nation's international priorities. we believe firmly that knowledge and understanding of other cultures and languages are an increasingly interconnected world, critical to building and sustaining our nation over the coming years. thank you, mr. chairman, for your attention to this important issue and i'll be happy to answer any questions later. >> now ms. greenfield, please proceed with your statement. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the efforts and their challenges to build the foreign language skills we need to fulfill our mission and also to deliver on america's foreign policy agenda. i will be presenting a summary of my statement today and ask that the full statement be submitted for the record. the bureau of human resources has the critical responsibility of building and maintaining an

effective civilian workforce that can strengthen the security and prosperity of our nation. as secretary clinton emphasized in the diplomatic and development review, managing threats such as regional conflict, wars, and terrorism depends as much on diplomacy and development as the use of military force. therefore we have increased the number of positions at difficult, hazardous posts that are vital to our foreign policy agenda. we now have close to 4,000 language designated positions in these posts as well as in other locations. it is challenging to uphold the department's high standard for foreign language capability with the increasing needs that we have faced over the past years. over the past decade, there has been significant shift and growth of positions in the near east, south asia and east asia bureaus require an increase in speakers of languages such as arabic, hindu, and chinese, over

our portions have tripled in the bureau of south and central asia affairs where language-designated position requirements have increased tenfold and in the bureau of eastern affairs corresponding with arabic requirements. the foreign service institute has expanded the foreign language training capacity to meet these demands and raise proficiency of existing foreign language speakers. more targeted recruitment, however, can help address the current challenges. and we're recruiting aggressively for certain priority language proficiency skills to address increasingly complex national security challenges, the department must have robust foreign language capabilities. therefore working in our inner agency with our interagency partners, we strongly encourage young people to study languages earlier in life starting in middle school and high school and continuing through college as my colleague just mentioned. to assist in building the pipeline, the bureau of

educational and cultural affairs is providing language learning opportunities to thousands of american universities, colleges, and high school students, and teachers each year through our exchange program. however, we're very concerned over the past few years to learn that budget constraints because of budget constraints, universities are cutting language programs first before they cut anything. in addition to the department has established incentives to encourage employees to strengthen their language skills, particularly in the so-called hard and super hard languages such as arabic, chinese, russian, japanese, korean, and hindi. underscore the value placed on the department of improving capacity in our most difficult and critical foreign languages. we appreciate the support we've received from you as well as from the congress as a whole under our diplomatic 3.0 hire program to hire training

complement that enables more positions to be filled require languages and functional training so we do not continue to assign people to posts that do not have the requisite language skills. the staff needed in places like afghanistan and iraq, we must also guarantee that our employees have the foreign language skills necessary to succeed in these challenging environments. but the need is not limited to these handful of countries. we have needs in many parts of the world as i stated earlier. no matter where in the world our employees are serving, our employees must have language skills to gather information, explain and advocate u.s. policies, establish and maintain diplomatic platforms, build and maintain trust, and create relationships. in today's rapidly changing world, the need for these skills has never been more critical.

we believe our country's future well being and security depend on them. mr. chairman, i thank you for the opportunity to address you today and i'd be happy to answer any questions following. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. >> doctor, please proceed with your statement. >> thank you. chairman, thank you for inviting me to talk to you about such an important topic. this is a priority for the nation and for the department of defense. let me begin by stating that defense secretary panetta has long believed that having a strong language ability is critical to national security. and we're committed to fielding the most capable force that we can deploy. our mission's success is directly connected to our ability to communicate effectively with local populations and international partners. our current challenge lies in filling language-required positions with personnel that possess the requisite language skills. we've been reducing this deficiency, but we need help. we need our nation schools to

develop students with these skills with which we can recruit to meet our needs. studies show that exposure to foreign language and early language learn greatly facilitate language acquisition. therefore bringing in individuals with foreign language skills make it easier to train people to higher levels of proficiency. this in turn would make it easier for us to fill positions with appropriately-qualified individuals. we are working to overcome these challenges through collaborative inner agency strategies to achieve our vision for language, regional, and cultural capabilities. the strategy addresses the importance of identifying our language needs, acquiring and sustaining language skills, enhancing language careers, building partners, and increasing surge capacity. the department is improving the identification of its language needs through standardized capability in the space processes. these processes enable the combatant commanders to

articulate their language needs or requirements and provide them to the military services who supply the staff to meet those needs. we've also sought innovative solutions to enhance the language acquisition and sustainments processes, which include creating a national security workforce pipeline, enhancing language training and sustainment in the total force, increasing partner language capacity. recruiting native and heritage speakers and creating financial incentives. enhancing language careers is essential to sustaining and retaining persons with foreign language skills. we are creating better opportunities for promotion of personnel with critical language skills, creating multiple regionally focused training initiatives, and offering language enhancement opportunities to federal, national security employees. we also recognize the need for partners. the department actively engages

through the national security education board. and inner agency governing body that puts emphasis on language and cultural issues. we also use an internal governance body, the steering committee consisting of representatives from 25 key components across the department to coordinate policies and programs. by experience, we've learned the importance of building a surge capacity. to yield language expertise quickly and at a reasonable cost. the department's national language service core provides a pool of qualified volunteers with high levels of proficiency in english and foreign languages who can serve and be activated as temporary government employees when needed. we have made real progress in improving our foreign language skills, regional expertise, and cultural capabilities to meet 21st century national security challenges. although we have achieved