IV

106TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION H. CON. RES. 342

Expressing the sense of Congress that there should be an international

education policy for the United States.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MAY 25, 2000

Mr. KOLBE (for himself, Mr. ISAKSON, Mr. OBERSTAR, and Mrs. MORELLA)

submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the

Committee on Education and the Workforce

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of Congress that there should be an

international education policy for the United States.

1 Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate

2 concurring),

3 SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

4 The Congress makes the following findings:

5 (a) International education entails the imparting of

6 effective global literacy to students and other citizens as

7 an integral part of their education;

8 (b) International education is important to meet fu9 ture challenges facing the United States including national
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HCON 342 IH

1 security and the management of global conflict and com2 petitiveness in a global economy;

3 (c) Nearly 500,000 international students and their

4 dependents contributed an estimated $11.7 billion to the

5 U.S. economy in the academic year 1998–99;

6 (d) Other countries, especially the United Kingdom,

7 are mounting vigorous recruitment campaigns to compete

8 for international students;

9 (e) U.S. competitiveness in the international student

10 market is declining, the U.S. share of internationally mo11 bile students having declined from 40 percent to 30 per12 cent since 1982;

13 (f) Educating international students is an important

14 way to spread U.S. values and influence and to create

15 goodwill for America throughout the world;

16 (g) Less than 10 percent of U.S. students graduating

17 from college have studied abroad;

18 (h) Research indicates that the United States is fail19 ing to graduate enough students with foreign language ex20 pertise to fill the demands of business, government, and

21 universities; and

22 (i) Exchange programs, which in the past have done

23 much to extend U.S. influence in the world by educating

24 the world’s leaders, are suffering from declining priority:
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HCON 342 IH

1 SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

2 It is the sense of Congress that an international edu3 cation policy should incorporate the following goals:——

4 (a) To ensure that all college graduates will have

5 knowledge of a second language and will have knowledge

6 of a foreign area.

7 (b) To enhance the educational infrastructure

8 through which the Nation produces international exper9 tise.

10 (c) To recapture 40 percent of the international stu11 dent market for the United States.

12 (d) To streamline visa, taxation, and employment

13 regulations applicable to international students.

14 (e) To significantly increase participation in study

15 abroad by U.S. students.

16 (f) To promote greater diversity of locations, lan17 guages, and subjects involved in study abroad in order to

18 ensure that the Nation maintains an adequate inter19 national knowledge base.

20 (g) To invigorate citizen and professional exchange

21 programs and to promote the international exchange of

22 scholars.

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