DoD has issued revised policies for a Defense Language, Regional Expertise and Culture Program, stating that those capabilities “are enduring critical competencies essential to the DoD mission and must be managed to maximize” them.
Under the guidance, all personnel are to be screened on entering federal service and also at times afterward for foreign language proficiency. That skill is to be encouraged through means such as paying foreign language proficiency pay and authorizing time for self-managed and classroom programs to maintain and improve proficiency.
“As mission dictates, the DoD will make full use of available language proficiency, regional expertise, and cultural capabilities without regard to Service or DoD agency affiliation, consistent with law and DoD policy,” it says.
Further, “civilian personnel deploying to foreign territories must possess or have access to an appropriate capability to communicate in the languages of the territories of deployment and at least have a rudimentary understanding of the region and associated culture(s).”