On the recordJuly 12, 2018
I am pleased to offer this amendment on behalf of its author, Mr. Keating of Massachusetts, who is one of our fine members who has great experience in public safety prior to coming to the Congress. This amendment builds on an initiative from Chairman Nunes to extend tour lengths of deployed U.S. Government personnel, particularly those who are proficient in difficult languages such as Arabic, Farsi, Chinese, and Korean. Specifically, the amendment adds the Russian language to that list. In view of the continuing threat to our national security posed by the aggressive action of the Russian Government, the U.S. Government must fully engage its cadre of personnel proficient in the Russian language. I am a slow talker. I am talking even more slowly, and my colleague has arrived. I want to thank my colleague for his work. Mr. Chairman, I urge support of this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.
