Language Lessons

The House Armed Services oversight and investigations subcommittee is scheduled to hold a hearing this afternoon titled "Beyond the Defense Language Transformation Roadmap: Bearing the Burden for Today's Educational Shortcomings."

Nancy Weaver, director of the Defense Language Office, and Army Brig. Gen. Walter Golden, director of manpower and personnel on the Joint Staff (J-1), will testify.

The Fiscal Year 2010 National Defense Authorization Act contains a provision that "would authorize the Secretary of Defense to carry out a program to establish language training centers at accredited universities, senior military colleges, or other similar institutions of higher education for the purposes of accelerating the development of foundational expertise in critical and strategic languages and regional area studies for members of the armed forces, including reserve component members and Reserve Officers' Training Corps candidates, and civilian employees of the Department of Defense," according to the report accompanying the conference bill.

Inside the Pentagon reported in September 2009 that the Pentagon resisted the inclusion of such a provision, arguing the effort would siphon money from higher-priority defense language programs. Specifically:

DOD is urging conferees to drop the House provision. In a Sept. 4 appeal to Congress, the department opposes the House provision because it would require "the expenditure of already limited resources," including funding and personnel for oversight and management, "to the detriment of higher priority defense language programs."

The provision does not allocate any funding to establish the pilot program and language training center, the appeal complains. This lack of additional resourcing would "negatively impact" existing defense language program resources, DOD argues. It would be similar to the pilot program for foreign language proficiency training for reserve members mandated by the FY-09 National Defense Authorization Act that DOD funded through other programs, adds the Pentagon.

"Additionally, program management and oversight are also major considerations, because experiences in our Language Flagship and Grant programs demonstrate that the department would have to outsource and/or create new positions to provide the required management and oversight of this new pilot program," argues the appeal.