Press Release

Opening Statement of Congressman Todd Akin

September 24, 2008

Contact: Josh Holly; 202.226.3988 

Opening Statement of Congressman Todd Akin

Subcommittee Hearing on Transforming the U.S. Military’s Foreign Language Skills, Cultural Awareness & Regional Expertise Capabilities 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO), the ranking Republican on the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, released the following opening statement for the subcommittee’s hearing regarding Department of Defense (DOD) language and cultural awareness transformation initiatives: 

“Thank you, Chairman Snyder, and good morning to our witnesses—we appreciate your being here today.  It must be particularly difficult for the three university professors on our panel to travel to Washington at the start of the academic year, but I am glad you are here.  Looking over your written testimony, I was quite impressed with the foreign language flagship programs you administer.  I am interested in hearing your perspectives on student interest and whether programs such as yours should be expanded and exported to other universities.  I think all of us would like to know if more funding were available and more programs created, would qualified and motivated students fill the classrooms? 

“As the chairman stated, today’s hearing continues the subcommittee’s look at plans to raise the cultural awareness and language skills of the Department of Defense.  We have heard in our previous two hearings on this topic how important language and cultural skills are to our military forces and the extensive—if not well coordinated—efforts the military services are making to improve language and cultural awareness skills in our military members. 

“Today’s hearing has a somewhat daunting title—DOD’s work to transform the nation’s foreign language capacity.  While I realize that DOD’s efforts are part of a larger federal program, the National Security Language Initiative, I would like to get a sense of how comprehensive this federal effort is and what can be done to further these objectives without undue cost to the Department of Defense.  Further, I wonder what DOD believes it can accomplish and how DOD funding in state and university programs, however worthwhile, translates to a more capable military force.  Beyond these questions, I am eager to hear our witnesses’ perspectives on how best to increase language proficiency in our society.  Each of our witnesses has a distinguished record in this field and together, they have much to teach us. 

“Again, thank you to our witnesses for being here today.”  

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