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

that me begin with mr. ochoa. >> thank you, senator akaka. we are trying to prepare the nation for the global 21st century society we are going into. as we outlined in our international strategy, that involves global competency in our citizens 3 -- our citizenry. an improved understanding of the world, greater effect business with our business dealings in other regions of the world, also greater understanding of the diversity in our own country as we draw from populations across the world. this is the kind of society we will be working in in the future. as we draw students from across the world, they represent an untapped resource because they are bridges to resources all over the world. we are a nation that is defined by an idea that draws people from all over the world and has for the lifetime of our country. that is a powerful asset we have. preserving and expanding that cultural diversity and the language that people bring it is something that will stand us in good stead in the future. >> i have always felt the diversity of our country is

mr. ochoa, i would like to discuss the department's vision for a national language we live with two realties. we the biggest, largest consumer of language capabilities we the biggest hirer of folks. we have the largest need of language 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 gifting few learning language is hard. it's not something you do once and it's yours forever. you have to sustain that per tease throughout your career. especially with the fiscal realities being what they are, our end state is the furtherance of our national partnership. we can't meet our needs alope. along the federal partners to share the practicists on how to help k through 12 to keep that pipeline coming practices on how to improve and sustain language capabilities once they've come in our doors and for the participator inships with congress to help keep this

mr. eduardo ochoa, please proceed with your statement. >> thank you. the definition chairman akaka -- good afternoon chairman akaka, and thank you for the opportunity to appear before the committee today. i am pleased to provide testimony for this hearing on national security and federal foreign language capabilities and i appreciate your focus on this issue as i have direct experience, born in argentina where i attended bilingual schools until my family moved to the united states during my junior year of high school. i understand the importance of foreign-language programs as they not only provide a better understanding of other cultures but provided me with a unique insight of my own culture and language. before providing an overview, let me this threat -- expressed appreciation of your longstanding support for the advancement of foreign language learning. the department believes it is imperative to improve federal government formed language capabilities. in keeping with this belief, the department adopted a fully- articulated international strategy