On the recordMarch 8, 1995
In Desert Storm, we sent 500,000 American troops over there, and we found we had only 5 people who could translate Iraqi military documents. The need for having knowledge in these areas is extremely important. My reason for being involved in this is back when I was a member of the House Education and Labor Committee, the then Secretary of Education, Ted Bell, asked to zero out our foreign language program, and Cap Weinberger, who was then Secretary of Defense, and Bill Casey, who was then head of the CIA, contacted me and said this is extremely important for us. This is an area where we have serious deficiencies. My hope is that the managers will be willing to accept my amendment. But if they are not, then I would want to press forward to have a vote on the amendment.
Source
govinfo.gov
