Five and a half years after the 2001 terrorist attacks, colleges are still struggling to respond to demands from the government, businesses, and students for more teaching of the languages believed to be critical to America's security and economic future. Arabic is considered essential for representing America's interests in the Middle East, but according to the recent report of the congressionally appointed Iraq Study Group, only six of the 1,000 U.S. embassy employees in Baghdad speak the language fluently. Mandarin is also vital for representing American companies in China, one of the world's largest markets. But in the 2003-4 academic year, the latest for which the U.S. Education Department has figures, American institutions awarded only 15 master's degrees in Chinese, and five Ph.D.'s. The federal government has acknowledged the problem, but many language-education leaders say its response has been lackluster, especially coming on top of years of decreasing federal money for language programs. In the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks, Congress passed its largest-ever increases for the two main federal programs that promote foreign-language proficiency, both run by the U.S. Department of Education. Yet spending for the programs is still considerably lower than it was 40 years ago, during the cold war. Advocates hope the new, Democrat-controlled Congress will allocate more money to language education, but they say prospects are unclear.