II 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 120 

A bill to expand the number of scholarships available to Pakistani women 

under the Merit and Needs-Based Scholarship Program. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JANUARY 23 (legislative day, JANUARY 3), 2013 

Mrs. BOXER (for herself and Ms. LANDRIEU) introduced the following bill; 

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations 

A BILL 

A bill to expand the number of scholarships available to 

Pakistani women under the Merit and Needs-Based 

Scholarship Program. 

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 ‘‘Malala Yousafzai 

5 Scholarship Act’ ’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following find8 ings: 

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1 (1) On October 9, 2012, 15-year-old Malala 

2 Yousafzai was shot in the head by Taliban gunmen 

3 in Pakistan on her way home from school. 

4 (2) When Malala was 11 years old, she bravely 

5 stood up to the Taliban and wrote a secret blog doc6 umenting their crackdown on women’s rights and 

7 education in 2009. 

8 (3) Malala’s advocacy for women’s education 

9 made her a target of the Taliban. 

10 (4) The Taliban called Malala’s efforts to high11 light the need for women’s education an ‘‘obscenity’’. 

12 (5) According to the United Nation’s 2012 

13 Education for All Global Monitoring Report, ‘‘Paki14 stan has the second largest number of children out 

15 of school [in the world]’’ and ‘‘nearly half of rural 

16 females have never been to school.’’. 

17 (6) According to a Council on Foreign Rela18 tions report titled ‘‘What Works in Girls’ Edu19 cation’’, ‘‘A 100-country study by the World Bank 

20 shows that increasing the share of women with a 

21 secondary education by 1 percent boosts annual per 

22 capita income growth by 0.3 percentage points.’’. 

23 (7) According to the World Bank, ‘‘The benefits 

24 of women’s education go beyond higher productivity 

25 for 50 percent of the population. More educated 

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1 women also tend to be healthier, participate more in 

2 the formal labor market, earn more income, have 

3 fewer children, and provide better health care and 

4 education to their children, all of which eventually 

5 improve the well-being of all individuals and lift 

6 households out of poverty. These benefits also trans7 mit across generations, as well as to their commu8 nities at large.’’. 

9 (8) According to United Nation’s 2012 Edu10 cation For All Global Monitoring Report, ‘‘education 

11 can make a big difference to women’s earnings. In 

12 Pakistan, women with a high level of literacy earned 

13 95 percent more than women with no literacy 

14 skills.’’. 

15 (9) In January 2010, Secretary of State Hillary 

16 Rodham Clinton stated, ‘‘We will open the doors of 

17 education to all citizens, but especially to girls and 

18 women . . . We are doing all of these things because 

19 we have seen that when women and girls have the 

20 tools to stay healthy and the opportunity to con21 tribute to their families’ well-being, they flourish and 

22 so do the people around them.’’. 

23 (10) The United States provides critical foreign 

24 assistance to Pakistan’s education sector to improve 

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1 access to and the quality of basic and higher edu2 cation. 

3 (11) The Merit and Needs-Based Scholarship 

4 Program administered by the United States Agency 

5 for International Development awards scholarships 

6 to academically talented, financially needy Pakistani 

7 students from remote regions of the country to pur8 sue bachelor’s or master’s degrees at participating 

9 Pakistani universities. 

10 (12) Twenty-five percent of the 1,807 Merit 

11 and Needs-Based Scholarships awarded to date have 

12 been for women, with the goal of awarding 50 per13 cent of the scholarships for fall 2013 matriculation 

14 to women. 

15 (13) The United Nations declared November 10 

16 as ‘‘Malala Day’’—a global day of support for and 

17 recognition of Malala’s bravery and courage in pro18 moting women’s education. 

19 (14) On December 10, 2012, the United Na20 tions and the Government of Pakistan launched the 

21 ‘‘Malala Fund for Girls’ Education’’ to improve 

22 girls’ access to education worldwide, with Pakistan 

23 donating the first $10,000,000 to the Fund. 

24 (15) The Government of Pakistan has stated 

25 that it plans to open 16 schools for poor children in 

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1 areas affected by conflict or natural disasters and 

2 name them ‘‘Malala Schools’’ after Malala 

3 Yousafzai. 

4 (16) The Government of Pakistan, the United 

5 Nations, the World Bank, and other international 

6 organizations have set an April 2013 deadline to put 

7 forward a plan to provide education for all of Paki8 stan’s school-aged children by the end of 2015. 

9 (17) More than 1,000,000 people around the 

10 world have signed the United Nations Special Envoy 

11 for Global Education petition calling on the Govern12 ment of Pakistan to enroll every boy and girl in pri13 mary school. 

14 (18) Pakistani civil society organizations col15 lected an additional 1,200,000 signatures from Paki16 stanis on a petition dedicated to Malala’s cause. 

17 SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 

18 (a) IN GENERAL.—It is the sense of Congress that— 

19 (1) education and freedom from discrimination 

20 are fundamental human rights; and 

21 (2) educational exchanges increase people-to22 people ties and promote institutional linkages be23 tween the United States and other countries. 

24 (b) CONTINUED SUPPORT FOR EDUCATIONAL INITIA25 TIVES IN PAKISTAN.—Congress encourages the Departmstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with BILLS

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1 ment of State and the United States Agency for Inter2 national Development to continue their support for initia3 tives led by the Government of Pakistan and Pakistani 

4 civil society that promote education in Pakistan, especially 

5 education for women. 

6 SEC. 4. MERIT AND NEEDS-BASED SCHOLARSHIP PRO7 GRAM. 

8 (a) EXPANSION.—The USAID Administrator shall 

9 increase the number of scholarships available under the 

10 Merit and Needs-Based Scholarship Program (referred to 

11 in this Act as the ‘‘Program’’) administered by the United 

12 States Agency for International Development (referred to 

13 in this Act as ‘‘USAID’’) during each of the fiscal years 

14 2013 through 2016 by 30 percent compared to the num15 ber of scholarships awarded during fiscal year 2012. 

16 (b) LIMITATIONS.— 

17 (1) WOMEN.—The additional scholarships avail18 able under subsection (a) may only be awarded to 

19 women, in accordance with other scholarship eligi20 bility criteria already established by USAID. 

21 (2) ACADEMIC DISCIPLINES.—Additional schol22 arships added by subsection (a) shall be awarded for 

23 a range of disciplines to improve the employability of 

24 graduates and to meet the needs of the scholarship 

25 recipients. 

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1 (3) OTHER SCHOLARSHIPS.—The USAID Ad2 ministrator shall make every effort to award 50 per3 cent of the scholarships available under the Program 

4 (excluding the additional scholarships available 

5 under subsection (a)) to Pakistani women. 

6 SEC. 5. ANNUAL CONGRESSIONAL BRIEFING. 

7 (a) IN GENERAL.—The USAID Administrator shall 

8 designate appropriate USAID officials to brief the appro9 priate congressional committees, not later than 1 year 

10 after the date of enactment of this Act, and annually 

11 thereafter for the next 3 years, on the implementation of 

12 section 4. 

13 (b) CONTENTS.—The briefing described in subsection 

14 (a) shall include, among other relevant information, for 

15 the most recently concluded fiscal year— 

16 (1) the total number of scholarships that were 

17 awarded through the Program; 

18 (2) the disciplines of study chosen by the schol19 arship recipients; 

20 (3) the percentage of the scholarships that were 

21 awarded to students seeking a bachelor’s degree or 

22 a master’s degree, respectively; and 

23 (4) the percentage of scholarship recipients that 

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1 tarily pushed out of the program for failure to meet 

2 program requirements. 

3 SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

4 (a) TRANSFER OF SECURITY ASSISTANCE FUND5 ING.—Of the amounts appropriated for fiscal years 2013 

6 and 2014 pursuant to the authorization under title II of 

7 the Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act of 2009 

8 (Public Law 111–73), $400,000 shall be made available 

9 in each of the fiscal years 2013 and 2014 for the Program. 

10 (b) FUNDING FOR ADDITIONAL SCHOLARSHIPS FOR

11 PAKISTANI WOMEN.—Of the amounts appropriated for 

12 fiscal years 2015 and 2016 for the purpose of providing 

13 assistance to Pakistan under the Foreign Assistance Act 

14 of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151 et seq.), $400,000 shall be made 

15 available in each of the fiscal years 2015 and 2016 for 

16 the Program. 

17 (c) AVAILABILITY.—Amounts made available in sub18 sections (a) and (b) shall remain available until expended. 

Æ 

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