Hello Language Expert,
Unfortunately, it is doubtful that any such number exists for the
entire government. Each government agency makes its own purchases
under the guidelines determined by Congress. When looking for
information on trends across all the agencies of the federal
government, the best place to look is the General Accounting Office
(www.gao.gov). The GAO did recently produce a report on the status of
foreign-language services in the government. The following excerpt is
from the congressional testimony of Susan S. Westin, managing director
for international affairs and trade at the GAO:
"Although more than 70 federal agencies have foreign language needs,
some of the largest programs are concentrated in the Army, the State
Department, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Federal Bureau of
Investigation. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) records indicate
that the government employs just under a thousand translators and
interpreters in the job series reserved for this group. The government
also employs tens of thousands of individuals who use foreign language
skills in positions such as FBI special agents and legal attachés,
State Department Foreign Service officers, and Department of Commerce
Foreign Commercial Service (FCS) officers. For the four agencies we
reviewed [Army, State Dept., FBI and Foriegn Commercial Service], a
total of nearly 20,000 staff are employed in positions that require
some foreign language proficiency."
In a footnote, Westin says the government's Office of Personnel
Management does not keep comprehensive records of how many translators
government agencies have on their staffs.
The GAO report is numbered GAO-02-375, if you want to get it from the
GAO Web site. Westin's testimony is GAO-02-514T.
An earlier GAO report (GAO/GGD-98-99R) found that from 1995 to 1997,
only 200 of about 69,000 documents produced by government agencies
outside of the State and Defense departments were in foreign
languages; most were in Spanish. From 1990 to 1994 (GAO/GGD-95-243R),
only 265 of more than 200,000 documents were not in English.
Congress also examined the state of foreign-language services in a
2000 hearing conducted by a subcommittee of the Senate Government
Affairs Committee (available at
http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/cong017.html). Ruth Whiteside,
director of the State Department's National Foreign Affairs Training
Center, said:
"For us, language training is very much a growth industry.
In fiscal year 1999, we delivered more than 800,000 hours of
language training in Washington, and that was an increase of
about 22 percent over the previous 2 years. We also enrolled
about 1,500 individuals from the State Department and a little
less than 500 individuals from other foreign affairs agencies
who come to FSI for training."
Added Christopher K. Mellon of the Defense Department: ""At any one
time, our (the department's) total needs are estimated to be 30,000
civil employees and contract translators and interpreters dealing with
over 80 different languages."
Finally, you might want to note that the major anti-terrorism
legislation passed last year, the PATRIOT Act, requires the CIA
director to investigate the prospect of creating a "National Virtual
Translation Center," sort of an intelligence version of Google
Translation.
The PATRIOT Act is avaiable at
<http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Surveillance/Terrorism_militias/20011025_hr3162_usa_patriot_bill.html>
I hope this answer meets your needs. |
