WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- A Senate panel will examine the U.S. government's lagging efforts to maximize its foreign language capacity in the war on terror.

The Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, chaired by Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, will hear evidence from Pentagon and Education Department officials Thursday, and from the man who runs the National Virtual Translation Center -- a nationwide service that employs cleared translators working in secure facilities to translate documents and recordings for the FBI and U.S. intelligence agencies.

The issue has been front and center since revelations that U.S. agencies had intercepted messages about the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks the day before, but not translated them until the day after.

Akaka -- in parallel with efforts by the House Intelligence and Government Reform Committees -- has kept after officials to develop policies to grow language training in agencies and improve foreign language education.

He has previously pushed legislation on the issue, aides say, and may do so again depending on the results of the hearing.

But some intelligence professionals are concerned about the strategies U.S. agencies are adopting to maximize their translation capacities.

In responses for the record released last month by the Senate Judiciary Committee, FBI Director Robert Mueller revealed for the first time that the bureau was using "the language programs of allied intelligence agencies" to help reduce the backlog of un-translated electronic surveillance recordings.

"Any time you are using foreign individuals, that is a concern," said one counter-intelligence veteran.