Title: To direct the Department of Defense to designate an executive agent responsible for continuing education in strategic foreign languages, and for other purposes.
Policy area: Armed Forces and National Security

Summary:
This bill requires the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness within the Department of Defense (DOD) to designate an executive agent for commercially available advanced foreign language training to meet operational readiness requirements of DOD.
The executive agent must establish a procedure for the respective military departments to reimburse any organization of DOD that provides foreign language instruction to service members.

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5200 Introduced in House (IH)]

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117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 5200

  To direct the Department of Defense to designate an executive agent 
 responsible for continuing education in strategic foreign languages, 
                        and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 10, 2021

  Mr. Bacon introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                      Committee on Armed Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To direct the Department of Defense to designate an executive agent 
 responsible for continuing education in strategic foreign languages, 
                        and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. DEFENSE LANGUAGE CONTINUING EDUCATION PROGRAM.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 120 days after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and 
Readiness shall coordinate with the Director of the Defense 
Intelligence Agency to designate an executive agent for commercially 
available advanced foreign language training to meet operational 
readiness requirements of the Department of Defense.
    (b) Elements.--The executive agent designated in subsection (a) 
shall be responsible for the following:
            (1) Developing policies, procedures, and curricula to allow 
        for continuing language training when linguists transition to 
        operational environments from education or training 
        environments, such as the Defense Language Institute, the 
        Defense Language and National Security Education Office, or 
        service-based training.
            (2) Identifying the resourcing requirements necessary for 
        each Armed Force to have access to the following foreign 
        language training elements:
                    (A) A foreign language and current culture training 
                and maintenance virtual immersion program covering 
                strategic languages (as designated by the Federal 
                Government), with a range of multimedia materials 
                including--
                            (i) current and authentic copyrighted 
                        multimedia content (video, audio, print, etc.), 
                        in multiple genres, that have been cleared for 
                        legal use;
                            (ii) foreign-originated newscasts and 
                        interviews with foreign speakers; and
                            (iii) any other content determined by the 
                        executive agent to be necessary for personnel 
                        to acquire proper vocabulary, phraseology, and 
                        enhanced understanding of the nuances 
                        associated with foreign cultures.
                    (B) Anytime accessibility, both online and via 
                mobile device.
                    (C) Training programs with success proven by 
                previous partnerships with academic institutions in the 
                United States or other departments and agencies of the 
                Federal Government.
    (c) Reimbursement Authority.--Not later than 180 days after the 
date of the enactment of this Act, the executive agent, in coordination 
with the chief of each covered Armed Force, shall establish a procedure 
through which the Armed Force shall reimburse any organization of the 
Department of Defense that provides instruction under this section to 
members of that Armed Force for the costs of such instruction.
    (d) Covered Armed Force Defined.--In this section, the term 
``covered Armed Force'' means the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, 
and Space Force.
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