Federal Government Foreign Language Capabilities

7/29/2010

Senate Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia

Chairman Akaka, ranking member Voinovich, and members of the subcommittee, I appreciate the opportunity to provide this statement on the important issue of foreign language incentive programs in the federal government. As president of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), representing more than 150,000 federal employees in over 31 different agencies and departments throughout the government, I am pleased to add NTEU’s perspective to this important subject.

NTEU strongly supports providing monetary incentives to address shortfalls in foreign language capabilities throughout the federal government workforce. Witnesses at this hearing will outline government-wide and department-wide foreign language capabilities, foreign language needs and foreign language shortfalls. In this testimony, I will outline the foreign language award program that NTEU has pioneered at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and is attempting to replicate at other federal agencies to address these needs and shortfalls.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE AWARDS PROGRAM

The Foreign Language Award Program (FLAP), established by the 1993 Customs Officer Pay Reform Act (COPRA), allows employees who speak and use foreign language skills on the job to receive a cash award if they use the language for at least 10 percent of their duties and have passed the competence test.

Congress understood that these law enforcement officers stationed at the 327 air, sea and land ports of entry were in daily direct contact with international travelers. Facilitation of trade and travel along with port security is a dual mission of these employees. Not only do language barriers delay processing of trade and travel at the ports, for these law enforcement officers, communication breakdowns can be dangerous. Confusion arises when a non-English speaking person does not understand the commands of a law enforcement officer. These situations can escalate quite rapidly if that person keeps moving forward or does not take their hands out of their pockets when requested.

NTEU and the former U.S. Customs Service negotiated the first congressionally-authorized Foreign Language Awards Program (FLAP) in 1997 and FLAP continued for former Customs Officers that became Customs and Border Protection Officers after the creation of U.S. Customs and Border Protection at DHS in March 2003. In 2007, FLAP became available to all CBP Officers and CBP Agriculture Specialists covered by COPRA. Under the negotiated agreement, in order for employees to receive an award, they had to show proficiency in a foreign language via a test, and use the foreign language during at least 10 percent of their normal work schedule. CBP pays for an officer's exam to test foreign language skills once per year -- and for two additional exams per year for languages of special interest.

Since its implementation in 1997, this incentive program, incorporating more than two dozen languages, has been instrumental in identifying and utilizing Customs and Border Protection (CBP) employees who are proficient in a foreign language. At CBP, this program has been an unqualified success, and not just for employees, but for the travelers who are aided by having someone at a port of entry who speaks their language, for the smooth functioning of the agency’s security mission. Under COPRA, CBP Officers who use their foreign language skills on the job have the opportunity to earn monetary awards equaling up to five percent of their base pay.

Even though the majority of those who receive a FLAP award do so on the basis of their proficiency in Spanish, other languages that CBP Officers and Agriculture Specialist are called upon to use include French, Creole, Chinese, and Vietnamese among other foreign languages. Qualified employees are also eligible for awards for use of the following languages of special interest that have been identified as critical foreign languages in support of CBP’s anti-terrorism mission:

Arabic

South Asian – Urdu (UAE, Oman), Farsi (Iran,

Bahrain), Punjabi (Pakistan), Dari-Pushtu

(Afghanistan), Turkish (Turkey, Cyprus)

Eurasian – Uzbek, Tajik, Turkoman, Uighur

African Horn – Somalo, Amharic, Tigrinya

Bahasa (Indonesia), Tagalog (Philippines)

Kurdish (Karmanji)

Russian

Chechen

FLAP has been an unqualified success in recognizing and encouraging foreign language capability at CBP. According to CBP’s available data, since FY 1998 the number of FLAP awards for the then-eligible 7699 CBP Officers (legacy Customs inspectors) grew from 1260 to 2173 in FY 2007, nearly doubling CBP’s foreign language capability. This data does not include those CBP Officers (legacy INS and post-2003 CBP Officer hires) and Agriculture Specialists that became eligible for FLAP in 2007.

This increased capacity at CBP compares favorably to DHS’s existing foreign language award program. According to the GAO report entitled DHS’s Actions to Recruit and Retain Staff and Comply with the Vacancies Reform Act, GAO-07-758, page 22, DHS has a separate “monetary award paid as a recruitment and retention incentive for law enforcement agents with foreign language skills.” In FY 2006, only two DHS component agencies participated in the DHS foreign language award program, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with 580 awards and the U.S. Secret Service with 68 awards (see GAO-07-758, page 51). Both ICE and the Secret Service Human Resource managers rated the foreign language award a “very effective” tool for recruiting and retaining staff (GAO-07-758, page 57-58).

NTEU’s negotiated FLAP program was not included for evaluation in this GAO report. According to GAO, CBP--a component DHS agency--did not utilize the department-wide foreign language award program. But for NTEU’s negotiated FLAP, thousands of CBP Officers and Agriculture Specialists at the ports of entry would have had no incentive to use existing and acquire new foreign language capability.

A key to the success of the CBP FLAP is that Congress specified a dedicated funding source to pay for these awards -- customs user fees pursuant to Title 19, section 58c (f) of the U.S. Code, rather than appropriated funding. Congress authorized user fees for certain customs services in the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. The Act stipulates the disposition of these user fees for the payment of overtime, premium pay, agency contributions to the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund, preclearance services and FLAP (see 19 U.S.C., section 58c (f)(3) (A)(i)). The statute states “to the extent funds remain available after making [these] reimbursements”, then salaries for full and part time inspectional personnel, called “enhanced positions” by CBP, and equipment may be paid for by the fee collected (see 19 U.S.C., section 58c(f)(3)(A)(ii)).

Despite this statutory language, on February 4, 2010, CBP proposed the immediate suspension of its FLAP for CBP Officers and CBP Agriculture Specialists in order to divert user fees to fund “enhanced positions”, even though the statute specifically states that these user fees can be used for “enhanced positions”, only to the extent that fee funds are available after paying other specified costs, including FLAP awards.

On April 30, 2010, NTEU was informed that CBP is reinstating the CBP Officer Foreign Language Award Program without limitation and employees will be paid FLAP awards in accordance with the current procedures set up in the program.

In its’ FY 2011 budget request, however, the Administration proposed to eliminate FLAP stating “FLAP benefits are funded from the collection of COBRA fees. Funding freed up from the elimination of FLAP will be used to fund salary cost, decreasing the appropriated funding.” (CBP Congressional Justification, S&E-88.)

It is unclear what the reinstatement means with respect to the FY 2011 FLAP budget reduction request. By having this hearing, this Committee has demonstrated its commitment to addressing the federal government’s current foreign language capabilities and needs. It would be useful for this Committee to express to DHS the importance of FLAP, CBP’s language incentive program, in helping CBP achieve its trade and travel enforcement and facilitation mission by encouraging employees to use and strengthen their foreign language skills.

NTEU continues to support H.R. 4832, a bill that amends Title 5 to provide that premium pay be paid to federal employees whose official duties require the use of languages other than English at work.

Rewarding CBP employees for using their language skills to protect our country, facilitate the lawful movement of people and cargo across our borders, and collect revenue that our government needs makes sense. Congress agreed that employees should be encouraged to develop their language skills by authorizing FLAP. Not only does it improve efficiency of operations and make the U.S. a more welcoming place when foreign travelers find CBP Officers can communicate in their language. It is also an important tool in the critical border security mission.

Thank you for holding this important hearing and allowing NTEU to provide this statement.