MR. AKAKA. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss the foreign language needs of the country -- a problem that is receiving renewed public attention because of the ongoing war in Iraq and the impact the lack of language expertise is having on our foreign policy. As John Limbert, president of the American Foreign Service Association, was quoted in the Federal Times last month, the shortage of linguists "makes our mission of representing the American people that much harder."

Frankly, I agree with Mr. Limbert. The stability and economic vitality of the United States and our national security depend on American citizens who are knowledgeable about the world. We need civil servants, area experts, diplomats, business people, educators, and other public officials with the ability to communicate at an advanced level in the languages and understand the cultures of the people with whom they interact. An ongoing commitment to maintaining these relationships and language expertise helps prevent a crisis from occurring and provides diplomatic and language resources when needed.

My own state of Hawaii is a leader in promoting language education and cultural sensitivity. As a gateway to Asian and Pacific nations, we in Hawaii understand the importance of knowing other languages and cultures, which help to develop strong relationships with other people. For example, according to the 2000 Census, more than 300,000 people in Hawaii, or about 27 percent of those five years and older, spoke a language other than English at home. This is compared to about 18 percent nationwide. In addition, the University of Hawaii is a leader in teaching Korean and is the host of one of two National Korean Flagship Programs established by the National Security Education Program. Hawaii is also host to the internationally recognized East-West Center, an education and research organization established in Hawaii by Congress in 1960, which is a leader in promoting and strengthening relations between the United States and the countries of the Asia Pacific region.

In 2000 the Senate Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on International Security, Proliferation, and Federal Services, then chaired by Senator Cochran, held a hearing on the foreign language needs of the federal government. At that hearing Ellen Laipson, Vice Chairman of the National Intelligence Council, testified as to the language shortfalls in the intelligence community and how these shortfalls could impact agency missions, especially in emergency situations. For example, a lack of language skills limits analysts' insight into a foreign culture which restricts their ability to anticipate political instability and warn policymakers about a potential trouble spot. In addition, Ms. Laipson testified that thousands of technical papers providing details on foreign research and development in scientific or technical areas were not being translated because of the lack of personnel to interpret the material, which could lead to the possibility of "a technological surprise."

Understanding the importance of improving our language capabilities, I introduced with Senators Durbin and Thompson the Homeland Security Education Act and the Homeland Security Federal Workforce Act. Our bills proposed a comprehensive strategy to improve language education, as well as science and math education, at the elementary, high school, and college levels and to provide incentives for individuals possessing such skills as a result of these programs to enter federal service in critical national security positions. The Senate passed the Homeland Security Federal Workforce Act on November 5, 2003, and provisions of the bill were included in the Intelligence Reform Act of 2004. In addition, I successfully added an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2005 requiring the Department of Defense to report on how it will address its language shortfalls in both the short- and long- term. Earlier this year, the Department issued its Defense Language Transformation Roadmap which lays out an ambitious plan for improving the language education of its employees.

While Congress has adopted several provisions to improve language education, including some that I have proposed, it has not been easy to gain a wider acceptance of this need. It has been said that the events of September 11, 2001, were a modern day Sputnik moment -- demonstrating that shortages of critical skills can have dire national security consequences. While Sputnik pointed out the importance of science and math education, September 11th reminded us that language skills and cultural awareness are essential for improving relations with the international community and strengthening our national security. However, nearly four years after that terrible day, we are still without sufficient language skills. We still have not learned the lesson that the Soviet launch of Sputnik taught us in 1958: investment in education is just as important to our national security as investing in weapons systems. As such, we need sustained leadership and a coordinated plan of action to address this on-going problem and to ensure that this nation never falls short in its language capabilities again or fails to communicate effectively with our neighbors around the world.

That is why I have introduced the National Foreign Language Coordination Act with Senators Dodd and Cochran. Our legislation, S. 1089, is designed to provide the needed leadership and coordination of language education. Primarily, the legislation creates a National Foreign Language Coordination Council which is composed of the secretaries of various executive branch agencies and chaired by a National Language Director. The National Language Director would be appointed by the President and is to be a nationally recognized individual with credentials and abilities necessary to create and implement long-term solutions to achieving national foreign language and cultural competency. By having the key players of the executive branch on the Council, I hope that each agency will come away with an understanding of what their role is, how they can reach out to their stakeholders for input, and become engaged in addressing this problem.

The Council would be charged with developing and overseeing the implementation of a national language strategy. In particular, the Council would identify priorities, increase public awareness, advocate needed resources, and coordinate efforts within the federal government to ensure that we are meeting our goal of improved language education and cultural understanding. As former Senator and 9-11 Commissioner Bob Kerrey recently said, "Someone in the executive branch has got to say, 'Here's where we are today, here's where we want to be in five years, and here's what it's going to take to get there.' " The National Foreign Language Coordination Act will do just that.

Mr. President, there have been several articles issued recently that have highlighted the need for more language training and the need for leadership in this area. I ask that the following articles be included in the Record:

• Tichakorn Hill, Does Anyone Here Speak Arabic? ( or Farsi, or Pashto?) The Government's Push to Close the Language Gap, Federal Times, June 20, 2005.
• John Diamond, Terror War Still Short on Linguists, USA Today, June 20, 2005.
• John Diamond, Muslim World Isn't Big with U.S. Students, USA Today, June 19, 2005.

We all understand the importance of language education and cultural understanding in this country; we just need to figure out how we make it happen. I am confident the National Foreign Language Coordination Council will provide the needed leadership and coordination to reach our goal.