Steven Holt: “there are a few good features in this bill. For example, the bill supports the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence…”

“there are a few good features in this bill. For example, the bill supports the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research funding request and provides additional funding for enhanced training of State Department intelligence activities. Following my request last year when my amendments with regard to foreign language instruction were rejected and the leadership assured me that we would take care of it this year, I worked closely with the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Bereuter) on a number of important provisions. I am pleased to acknowledge the work that he did. Nearly $29 million of the $33 million in language programs that we find in this bill were what I had specifically recommended or even written. They will do a number of things to improve our proficiency in critical languages. But I am very disappointed in a number of failures. There was a commonsense amendment I offered to provide foreign language instruction for students of science and engineering at American universities. It was a simple idea. We need it. It was voted down on party lines. But the fundamental problem, and this is what we keep coming back to today, all the world knows that there have been some major intelligence failures.”