I 

109TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 343 

To establish a pilot program of Central Asian scholarships for undergraduate 

and graduate level public policy internships in the United States. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 25, 2005 

Mr. PITTS introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 

on International Relations 

A BILL 

To establish a pilot program of Central Asian scholarships 

for undergraduate and graduate level public policy internships in the United States. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Central Asia Education 

5 Enhancement Act of 2005’’. 

6 SEC. 2. CENTRAL ASIA SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM FOR PUB7 LIC POLICY INTERNSHIPS. 

8 (a) PILOT PROGRAM ESTABLISHED.—As part of the 

9 educational and cultural exchange programs of the De10 partment of State, the Secretary of State shall establish 
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1 a pilot program for the fiscal years 2006, 2007, and 2008, 

2 of scholarships for undergraduate and graduate students 

3 from Central Asia for public policy internships in the 

4 United States. Subject to the availability of appropria5 tions, for each fiscal year 50 students shall participate in 

6 the program established under this section. 

7 (b) GENERAL PROVISIONS.— 

8 (1) IN GENERAL.—Except as otherwise pro9 vided in this section, the program established pursu10 ant to subsection (a) shall be carried out under ap11 plicable provisions of the United States Information 

12 and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 and the Mu13 tual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 

14 1961. 

15 (2) SCHOLARSHIP ELIGIBILITY REQUIRE16 MENTS.—In addition to such other requirements as 

17 may be established by the Secretary of State, a 

18 scholarship recipient under this section— 

19 (A) shall be proficient in the English lan20 guage; 

21 (B) shall be a student at an undergraduate 

22 or graduate school level at an accredited insti23 tution of higher education with a record of out24 standing academic achievement and dem25 onstrated intellectual abilities; and 
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1 (C) may not have received an academic 

2 scholarship or grant from the United States 

3 Government in the 3 years preceding the award 

4 of a scholarship under this section. 

5 (3) INTERNSHIPS.—Internships under this sec6 tion shall be for periods of not more than 6 months. 

7 (4) PRIORITY CONSIDERATION.—In the award 

8 of internships under this section, the Secretary shall 

9 give priority consideration to students from 

10 Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. 

11 (5) DEFINITION.—For the purposes of this sec12 tion, the term ‘‘Central Asia’’ means the countries 

13 of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, 

14 Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. 

15 (c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—In addi16 tion to such amounts as are otherwise authorized to be 

17 appropriated for the Department of State for educational 

18 and cultural exchange programs, there are authorized to 

19 be appropriated for each of the fiscal years 2006, 2007, 

20 and 2008, $600,000 to carry out this section. 

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