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Let the sun shine on federal spending on non-English services (Rep. Virginia Foxx)

by N.C. GOP Rep. Virginia Foxx - 03/18/09 11:55 AM ET

Last week I introduced H.R. 1414, the Multilingual Services Accounting Act, to open up some of the inner workings of the federal bureaucracy to the sunshine of taxpayer scrutiny.

The bill is actually quite simple. It requires federal agencies to report how much they spend each year on services provided in languages other than English.

That’s it. No burdensome mandates or quotas. Just a straightforward accounting mechanism to give Congress and the taxpayers we represent an idea of how much the federal government is shelling out to provide non-English services.

Currently, we have no idea how much money is spent on services in languages other than English. While some of these services may be necessary, in many cases, decisions to provide non-English services are made by bureaucrats with little or no accountability.

My bill simply injects a healthy dose of accountability and transparency into the equation. Its passage would be an important step towards ensuring taxpayer money is not frittered away on wasteful projects.