Funding
The House State-Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee funded educational and cultural exchange programs at $586.957 million for FY 2013, exactly even with the President’s FY13 request and approximately 2 per cent below the final FY 2012 appropriation for exchanges of $598.8 million.
The House Appropriations State-Foreign Operations Subcommittee (which funds State Department exchange programs) will consider funding for FY 2013 as early as next week, with the Senate subcommittee to follow soon after. While the Senate has proposed nearly level funding for international affairs programs, the House is threatening to cut them by 9.4 per cent.
We need to generate as many letters from constituents as possible, asking your members of Congress to support level funding for Department of State exchange programs at $598.8 million in FY 13.
The House Appropriations committee today approved by a 28-21 vote its FY 13 allocations for the 12 appropriations bills, CQ.com reports. State-Foreign Operations, which includes Department of State exchange programs, would be funded at $48.3 billion, consisting of $40.1 billion in base funding and $8.2 billion for Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO).
At the markup of the 302(b) allocations for FY13, the Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday approved an allocation of $53 billion for State-Foreign Operations, which includes Department of State exchange programs. This allocation consists of $49.8 billion in base funding and $3.2 billion in funding for Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO).
On Alliance Advocacy Day, Nancy Neill, vice president of the Fulbright Association, walked into the office of Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA), armed with her status as a constituent and an Alliance position paper on maintaining robust funding for State Department exchanges. She walked out with something else: a commitment from Rep. Johnson’s office to lead a Congressional sign-on letter supporting exchange funding.
The Alliance is working with Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA)’s office to send a Congressional sign-on letter to House appropriators in support of robust exchange program funding in FY 2013, and we need to gather as many signatures for this letter as possible by COB Friday!
Please act now and write your Representative! Using the below link, urge him or her to sign Rep. Johnson’s letter in support of flat funding for Department of State exchanges at $598 million in FY 2013:
http://capwiz.com/alliance-exchange/issues/alert/?alertid=61096601
The President’s FY 2013 budget, released on Monday, provides $586.957 million for Department of State educational and cultural exchange programs. This funding level is a decrease of $11.843 million (approximately 2 per cent) from the final FY 2012 appropriation for exchanges of $598.8 million.
The Chronicle of Higher Education examined the President’s FY 2013 budget request, released yesterday, calling it a “mixed bag for international educators”:
“While requesting an almost 9-per cent increase for the Fulbright Program, the U.S. State Department's flagship academic-exchange opportunity, many other international programs either face cuts or only a slight rise in support.
Department of State educational and cultural exchange programs received $586.957 million in the President’s budget request for FY 2013, released this morning. This funding level is a decrease of $11.843 million (approximately 2 per cent) from the final FY 2012 appropriation for exchanges of $598.8 million.
Within this FY13 budget of $586.957 million, the President’s request sets out the following breakdown:
President Obama reiterated the importance of U.S. engagement with the world and the international affairs budget on Monday during a Google+ “Hangout” and broadcast live on Youtube, the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition reported.
