rate. we currently are at 88% and we anticipate we are going to meet our fiscal year '12 goal. and the flexibility we have is the workforce of contract linguist and language analyst. as a result we've reduced our average applicant processing time and we're down to now ten months. which for us is a really good news story. the challenges that we face in recruiting and hiring is difficulty in finding those individuals who can pass the foreign language test battery at the level we require. they also need a polygraph examination and a full scope background. and our requirements that a lot of our material has to be submitted to a court of law for evidentiary purposes, we have a higher bar set for our language skills. we have an average of 1 in 10

applicants getting through that applicant process. we're competing with everyone else here at the table for the same resources. the way that we mitigate those challenges is through recruiting fairs that we actually go out to look at the native and heritage communities we advertise in those foreign language newspapers. we put out press releases and we do in person events. we also attend university hiring events and the intelligence community has a virtual career fair that we also attend. and then we leverage the other language-enabled employees in the fbi. we are able to provide them with a limited amount of foreign language incentive pay where if they have a language critical to our needs, we can award them for that ability. we also leverage our ic partners

through cross-community resource sharing. so we host joint duty assignments interagency short-term temporary duty assignmen assignments. we work with the national security education program as i mentioned before. and that heritage language speakers program. and still we do have foreign language needs and those continue to be arabic the dialects. >> mr. nordin? >> one of the difficulties that we have had has always been the inability to take people away from the positions where they're actively using their language and send them off to school to learn their language better or to do other jobs. it's a bit like -- we are very appreciative of the training float that was granted to the dni.

for a number of conditions so we can send some of these people off to get their enhancement training. but the biggest difficulty we face, sir, i feel is in that our leadership and i can't -- the name's specific, but let's say the general entity leadership is as unaware of the needs for language within their organizations as the general populus is aware -- is failing to be aware of the needs for language in their community. it is a national disgrace in that respect, sir. and it's that lack of knowledge that we need to correct. we need to find a way to communicate to our people just how important that interpreter translator at the social services level is to a

community's well-being. so that is our biggest education challenge, i feel. >> thank you very much, mr. nordin. >> doctor, you mentioned earlier the national language service corps, will you please discuss how the corps addresses the department's language needs? as well as any plans to further develop the corps? >> yes, sir. the service corps recruited -- there's about 2,200 members at this point and about 500 more applicants. i mentioned before that this represents about 196 languages around the world. there's a national pool that looks like our inactive reserve

and dedicated pool that looks like our active reserve. and what this means is it is truly a surge capacity for those emergent needs that need to be filled. that dedicated pool represents a predictable and very broad capacity for languages that are not commonly found. several geographic combatant commanders, you know, to include pay com and africom are regularly drawing from this. our nato-oriented units are drawing on these capabilities as well as key agencies. non-dod agencies and we've heard from some of them today include everywhere from fbi to fema, irs, department of justice,

center for disease prevention, and several states, individual states have drawn from this service corps. and i guess in a time of fiscal austerity, it's useful to point out that we've actually been able to recapture some of the investments we've made in federal employees and that at about 8% of the service corps have previously had federal backgrounds. so we're recapturing those language capabilities. the national language service corps is something we rely on a lot. and as, you know, it's relatively new in our world. and as word is getting around, we expect the demand for this capability to increase. so it's something that we take very seriously. >> thank you. let me ask my final question to the entire panel.

what do you envision as the end goal -- the end goal for language capacity? and what resources or authorities are needed to reach that goal? i would like to discuss the department's vision for national language capacity, and i would like the other witnesses to discuss language capacity within your departments. so that's my question to the entire panel. it may begin. >> thank you. senator. well, ultimately we are really trying to prepare the nation for this the global 21st century society we are going into.

and that requires as we've outlined in our international strategy the development of global competencies in our s citizen citizenry. this will lead to positive outcomes all around. in addition to the very focused national security concerns, there is improved understanding of the world, greater effectiveness in our business dealings with other countries and other regions of the world. also, greater understanding of the diversity within our own country as we draw from populations across the world. this is the kind of society we're going to be working in the future. we have -- as we draw students from across the world, they represent a potential untapped resource because they are really bridges to communities all over the world. we are a nation that unlike many other countries, we are defined by an idea that draws people from all over the world. and it has for the lifetime of

our country. and so that is -- that is a very powerful asset that we have. and i think that preserving and expanding that cultural diversity and the language that people bring is something that i think will stand in the global society of the future. >> well, i've always felt the diversities of our country as strengths. and that's part of that part of the strength. >> absolutely. >> thank you. >> ambassador? >> thank you, again. the department of state has a huge responsibility of carrying out our diplomatic goals all over the world. and in order to do that, we have to have a workforce that has the language skills to do it wherever we are in the world. so what we see in the future or hope for in the future is to be able to recruit people with those language skills when they come into the foreign service so

that we're able to deploy them as quickly as possible to those areas of the world where they are required. and we'd like to be able to have the resources to continue to train them in their languages to improve their language skills so that as they go up in the foreign service they're better able to negotiate for our government to help us prevent wars. this is a huge responsibility that we have and we know that we need to have people with language skills to carry out those responsibilities. >> thank you. >> yes, sir. we live with two realities. the first is that we are the biggest, largest consumer of language capabilities that we're the biggest hirer of folks -- we have the largest needs of folks with requirements in the federal government and probably nationwide. and these are profound needs. these are needs in some of the

most difficult languages out there. the second reality is that except for a gifted few, learning language is hard. it's not something that you do once and it's yours forever. you have to sustain that expertise throughout your career. and especially with the fiscal realities being what they are, our end state is the furtherance of a national plan, a national partnership. we cannot meet our needs alone. partnerships, like i said among the federal -- our federal partners to share best practices on how to help k-12 to keep that pipeline coming. practices on how to improve and sustain language capability once they've come in our doors. and further partnerships with congress to help keep this pivotal national issue. thank you, sir. >> thank you.

>> so, since 9/11, the fbi collection of counterterrorism matters has increased significantly. and we don't see that trend reversing at all. we project that the demand for translation services will only continue to increase. so the challenge for us is achieving the goal of translating all of the material that we collect. we're never going to be able to do that because of what we collect and the volume that continues to come in. so really what we need to be able to do is partner with our other agencies in the community, the intel community and the civilian community so that we have the resources that we need then to remain flexible so that we can meet those new and emerging threats as they appear as years go along, the languages that are going to be in demand are going to change. right now, we cannot predict what those languages will be 20

years from now, but now is the time we actually have to start training our workforce for those languages 20 years in the future. so to have those resources to remain flexible so we can reconfigure our workforce help work on the technology so that we can triage the material we're getting to be able to i.d. the speaker, i.d. the language, look to see what we can do to actually focus our analysts so their work becomes more productive and not such a sifting through of all the collection that we have. >> thank you very much. mr. nordin? >> i believe the director has laid a strategy of increasing the number of persons in the intelligence community who have command of other languages, cultures, knowledge of the countries. and augments that increase with

key technologies inserted at critical points within our intelligence collection and analytic systems. so that you facilitate the -- and control the volumes of material that are being processed. and there is no one solution to the problem. it lies in the nation itself understanding the need for foreign language in their daily lives. thank you. >> thank you. i want to thank this panel very much for your responses and your statements, of course. you've been very helpful. and i want to wish you well as we continue to increase the capacity and use the resources we have. it's another part to this we need to -- in coordination look

at other possible resources in other places that maybe will help, as well. you know just as well as i do. but i want to wish you well, you're doing a great job, but still have a little more to do. and so i want to thank you for what you're doing and wish you well in your work. thank you. i would like to ask our second panel to please come forward.

>> i want to welcome mr. andrew lawlis, member of the globalization and localization association. and ceo of dig it strategies for contents. also i'd like to introduce dr. alan goodman. a member of the council on foreign relations task force. on u.s. education reform and national security. and president of the institute

of international education. and dr. dan davidson who is president of the american councils for international education and president-elect of the joint national committee for languages. it is the custom as you know this committee to swearing all witnesses to ask you to please rise and raise your right hand. do you swear that the testimony you're about to give this subcommittee is the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth so help you god? thank you. let it be noted for record that the witnesses answered in 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 like also to remind you please limit your oral remarks to five minutes. so mr. lawlis would you please proceed with your statement? >> thank you, chairman. thank you to this committee for allowing my testimony about the business of language in the u.s. i will do so on behalf of the globalization and association the international trade association for the corporate sector. as an american citizen with a thick german accent and an irish last name, i feel especially motivated to speak to you today how the shortage of language resources puts our economic security at risk. let me give you some context first. u.s. businesses exported about 1.5 trillion in goods and $600 billion in services last year.

all of which depended on language services to sell and market to audiences whose native language is not english. new statements, websites, movies, product literatures, software, safety information, labeling, games, and customs support are all translated today in over 500 major language pairs. the outsource language services industry represented 15.5 billion of activity and 190,000 jobs in north america last year. this does not account for the vastly larger pool of part-time and freelance linguists in the u.s. let alone the jobs that the languaging industry has indirectly created such as for the american people who have marketed, sell, deliver, and support u.s. made products worldwide. languages and the business that they enable may be the most

powerful force in job creation in the united states today. without languages, u.s. businesses would be missing 2.1 trillion in gross income. as u.s. companies target audiences at home and abroad, they create a rapidly growing need for language services and a workforce that can deliver in settings. if you sell products in germany, your customers support team needs to be ready. to stay relevant and to continue to successfully compete in the global marketplace, u.s. companies must build language capabilities. acquiring language skills takes time, repeated exposure, and practice to develop. not acting immediately on these development needs has dire consequences on the economy. we are seeing a chronic shortfall of qualified language

specialists and stagnant productivity. as a result corporations are relying on low-quality machine translations. all of which are rendering the products less competitive in the global marketplace. the american workforce needs more key competencies and disciplines such as translation, localization, terminology, localization technologies, engineering, and multimedia. these skills are in high demand and will continue to be sought after. u.s. businesses and government agencies are addressing the needs following competence, but we need more corporations between private sector government in academicademia. promoting research and development of language activity in key areas such as emerging markets, homeland security, and cyber crime. expanding the educational and

career opportunities for citizens and language-related fields. and last but not least, training specialized workers such as law enforcement officers and the intelligence community and targeted skills. as an association, gala is committed to advancing our industry to alleviate the looming crisis. but we cannot do it all on our own. we will need the close collaboration between translation service companies, technology providers, the biocommunity, government and academia. we welcome to expand on this testimony and our recommendations in more detail. and we also appreciate the invitation from the previous panel to collaborate with the private sector. and we are definitely open for that. and that conversation -- and thank you for the opportunity to testify, and i'm happy to answer any question that you want to have. >> thank you very much.

dr. goodman, will you please proceed with your statement? >> thank you, mr. chairman. it was an honor to receive the call from this committee to present some testimony. it's a privilege to serve as president of the institute of national education on behalf of the department of state and the department of defense. but what really captured my attention for this hearing was participation in the council on foreign relations task force. it was chaired by secretary condoleezza rice and former chancellor of the new york city public school system joel klein. it was a very bipartisan and very mixed group. but for higher educator, what really was to me the heart of the recommendation was the call for a national readiness audit. which would help us understand the very things your statement and your questions and this committee have been asking about for a long time. how prepared is the nation and

at what levels are we teaching all of our citizens to have proficiency in another language? now, it's easy for us in higher ed and international education to forget just how many of our citizens aren't connected to the world and don't get the chance to study it. 70% of americans today don't have a passport. and that's about the same percentage of americans with a college education that can't find indonesia on a map, can't find iran on a map, and believe that south sudan, the newest country in the world is either in southeast asia or in south america. most americans who do study abroad go to a relatively few number of countries, many also english-speaking. and they study abroad for a very short period of time. the other thing that we tend to forget except for you and this committee is that foreign language learning in our country

may be at the lowest level in our nation's history. certainly for college students today with about as the secretary has said, only 8% studying a foreign language. that's half of what it was in 1965. yet the need for as you've noted and many times the need for much more proficiency in foreign language is where the future ought to be. the federal programs that this committee has supported are quite strategic, therefore, in my view. they're global. they get our citizens to more than 150 different countries. they're very diverse. not only in terms of where students go, but the students from our society that go more than half are from minority groups in our society. much different portfolio and profile than is the normal study

abroad profile of americans going abroad. they go for longer periods of time. and that is conducive to language study. so i think this congress has repeatedly made very strategic investments in these programs, and we're grateful. but to move the needle, i'm not going to ask for more money. to move the needle, what has to happen is american higher education has to reinstitute foreign language proficiency as a graduation for every undergraduate going through our system. 100 years ago that was true in every college in america from technical schools to liberal arts schools to research universities and today i don't think it's true for more than a dozen or two dozen in our whole country. that's the only thing that's going to change the pipeline and assure that the panel we just heard from is going to have the future language speakers that we need to protect our country. in concluding, i wanted to part

from my written statement just a little bit because your committee is focused also on the district of columbia. 20 blocks from here my daughter runs a clinic, a pediatric clinic under a federally qualified health clinic. they've had over 600,000 patient visits last year and 95% of her patients language is mainly spanish. -- be an effective doctor in your service corps was to be able to speak to american patients in their own language.

>> both programs. >> thank you very much. dr. davidson, please proceed with your statement. >> thank you very much, senator ochoa. it's been my pleasure to serve for the last four years. the u.s. is in a strong position to address the needs that have been so articulately and eloquently spoken today by our colleagues from dod, odni, state, justice, education, the foreign affairs community, and american business. if we are to meet the demands of keeping the peace around the globe that's called for by secretary a net that of engaging audiences and institutions around the world and not just their english-speaking elites as envisioned by president obama and secretary clinton. and also detecting the intentions and preventing the

actions of those who would do us harm as nsa director has stated. then what is needed is a citizenry and government workforce that includes substantial numbers of persons professionally fluent and culturally literal. research shows that professional level knowledge of language is highly sensitive to cultural signals and cues of understanding not only what people say but also how they use language to communicate, to modulate, meaning to conceal values or communicate intentions in their aspirations. to build rapport with one another, to persuade, to negotiate, to establish trust or fail to establish trust as the case may be. information transferred by the way some machines are fairly good at is a minor part of communication as you look at the documents we have. the cultural component is