The “One America, Many Voices Act,” also called the Bilingual Pay Bill (HR 4832) and introduced by Rep. Michael Honda (D-CA), would provide federal government employees fluent in more than one language a five per cent pay increase, the Washington Post reports.

Honda, who is chairman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, argues that national security demands a corps of professionals who are proficient in such critical languages as Chinese, Arabic, Urdu, Russian and Hindi.