Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009
DUNCAN HUNTER NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2009 -- (House of Representatives - May 22, 2008)
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Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Chairman, this amendment solves a critical deficiency in our warfighting and our peacekeeping capabilities by strengthening the Arab language capabilities in the Department of Defense and Department of State. There are literally hundreds of Iraqis in the United States who supported our military units as translators in Iraq. They risked their lives, they risked their families' lives. They went on patrol in very dangerous areas, told our servicemembers what the enemy was saying, what was being said.
Then they came here to escape persecution, and when they got here, they wanted to continue providing those critical linguistic abilities and they were told there was no place for them to work. Many of them today are working in Safeways and working in Home Depots and working in restaurants, instead of providing the linguistic capabilities that we desperately need in the military theater.
Study after study after study, including the Quadrennial Defense Review, points to the critical deficiency we have in understanding the cultures and languages that we are fighting in. Our Nation now has hundreds of people who grew up in those cultures, speak those languages, pass background checks, risk their lives, and what do we do, even though we need their skills? We let them bag groceries at a Safeway. It doesn't make any sense.
This amendment would help solve that problem by instructing DOD and the Department of State to create a temporary program that would offer employment as translators, interpreters, or culture awareness instructors in Iraq, who meet certain rigid criteria. One, they must be here legally. Two, they must have worked for at least the last 12 months as translators in Iraq since 2003 for our troops or for another U.S. Government agency.
This amendment is endorsed by the Episcopal Church, Veterans for Common Sense, the International Rescue Committee, Church World Service, which works very hard on it, and many additional groups.
[Time: 16:45]
I would like to read into the Record, Mr. Chairman, a statement by Major Andrew Morton, U.S. Army Active Service, a former Director of Strategic Communications for Multinational Forces in Iraq, where he says, ``Representative's Israel's proposed amendment is a critically needed program to assist these many Iraqis who have put themselves and their families in harm's way to assist our joint operations in Iraq.''
This is a very important amendment in helping those who were protecting us, and I urge its passage.
I reserve the balance of my time.
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