Washington, D.C. - The United States House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform today adopted two amendments to H.R. 10, the “9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act,” offered by Representative Chris Van Hollen (D-MD).
The first would require the President to identify the foreign language translation deficiencies in the federal government and develop a plan to address the problem. A recent Inspector General’s report released this week revealed that the FBI has failed to translate hundreds of thousands of hours of wiretap recordings from counterterrorism and counterintelligence investigators.
The second amendment requires the President to establish a network to ensure that federal agencies share the terrorism related information they collect and analyze. The 9-11 Commission identified the need to establish a national information sharing network as one of its top priorities.
“This is a victory for the security of the American people,” said Van Hollen. “There are hundreds of thousands of hours of terrorism-related audio tapes that have not been translated because there are not enough translators to do the job. This is a major security gap that Congress should not go home without closing.”