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Calendar No. 603 

113TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 3583 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

NOVEMBER 20, 2014 

Received; read twice and placed on the calendar 

AN ACT 

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, Malala Yousafzai was 

2 shot in the head by Pakistani Taliban on her way 

3 home from school. 

4 (2) In late 2008, Malala began writing a blog 

5 for BBC Urdu under a pseudonym pressing the case 

6 for access to education for women and girls despite 

7 objections from the Pakistani Taliban. 

8 (3) Malala’s advocacy for the education of 

9 women and girls made her a target of the Taliban. 

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

12 ‘‘obscenity’’. 

13 (5) On July 12, 2013, Malala celebrated her 

14 16th birthday by delivering a speech before the 

15 United Nations General Assembly in which she said, 

16 ‘‘So let us wage a glorious struggle against illiteracy, 

17 poverty, and terrorism. Let us pick up our books 

18 and our pens. They are the most powerful weapons. 

19 One child, one teacher, one book, and one pen can 

20 change the world. Education is the only solution.’’. 

21 (6) According to the United Nation’s 2012 

22 Education for All Global Monitoring Report, ‘‘Paki23 stan has the second largest number of children out 

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

25 females have never been to school.’’. 


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

2 of women’s education go beyond higher productivity 

3 for 50 percent of the population. More educated 

4 women also tend to be healthier, participate more in 

5 the formal labor market, earn more income, have 

6 fewer children, and provide better health care and 

7 education to their children, all of which eventually 

8 improve the well-being of all individuals and lift 

9 households out of poverty. These benefits also trans10 mit across generations, as well as to their commu11 nities at large.’’. 

12 (8) According to United Nation’s 2012 Edu13 cation For All Global Monitoring Report, ‘‘education 

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

15 Pakistan, women with a high level of literacy earned 

16 95 percent more than women with no literacy 

17 skills.’’. 

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

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

20 education to all citizens, but especially to girls and 

21 women * * * We are doing all of these things be22 cause we have seen that when women and girls have 

23 the tools to stay healthy and the opportunity to con24 tribute to their families’’ well-being, they flourish 

25 and so do the people around them. 


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1 (10) The United States provides critical foreign 

2 assistance to Pakistan’s education sector to improve 

3 access to and the quality of basic and higher edu4 cation. 

5 (11) The Merit and Needs-Based Scholarship 

6 Program administered by the United States Agency 

7 for International Development (USAID) awards 

8 scholarships to academically talented, financially 

9 needy Pakistani students from all regions, including 

10 remote areas of the country, to pursue bachelor’s or 

11 master’s degrees at participating Pakistani univer12 sities. 

13 (12) Fifty percent of the 974 Merit and Needs14 Based Scholarships awarded during fiscal year 2013 

15 were awarded to Pakistani women. Historically, only 

16 25 percent of such scholarships have been awarded 

17 to women. Starting in the fall of 2013, USAID has 

18 committed to provide 50 percent of all scholarships 

19 to women. 

20 (13) The United Nations declared July 12, 

21 2013, as ‘‘Malala Day’’—a global day of support for 

22 and recognition of Malala’s bravery and courage in 

23 promoting women’s education. 

24 (14) On October 10, 2014, Malala Yousafzai 

25 became the co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for 


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1 her ‘‘struggle against the suppression of children 

2 and young people and for the right of all children to 

3 education’’. 

4 (15) On December 10, 2012, the United Na5 tions and the Government of Pakistan launched the 

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

7 girls’ access to education worldwide, with Pakistan 

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

9 (16) 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 (17) Pakistani civil society organizations col15 lected almost 2,000,000 signatures from Pakistanis 

16 on a petition dedicated to Malala’s cause of edu17 cation for all. 

18 (18) Engagement with Pakistani diaspora com19 munities in the United States, who have unique per20 spectives, access, and opportunities to contribute to 

21 stability and economic growth in Pakistan, will be a 

22 critical element of a successful United States pro23 gram to promote greater access to education for 

24 women and girls. 


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1 SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 

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

3 (1) every individual should have the opportunity 

4 to pursue an education; 

5 (2) every individual, regardless of gender, 

6 should have the opportunity to pursue an education 

7 without fear of discrimination; 

8 (3) educational exchanges promote institutional 

9 linkages between the United States and Pakistan; 

10 and 

11 (4) recipients of scholarships referred to in sec12 tion 4 should commit to improving their local com13 munities. 

14 (b) CONTINUED SUPPORT FOR EDUCATIONAL INITIA15 TIVES IN PAKISTAN.—Congress encourages the Depart16 ment of State and the United States Agency for Inter17 national Development to continue their support for initia18 tives led by the Government of Pakistan and Pakistani 

19 civil society that promote education in Pakistan, especially 

20 education for women. 

21 SEC. 4. MERIT AND NEEDS-BASED SCHOLARSHIP PRO22 GRAM. 

23 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Administrator of the United 

24 States Agency for International Development (referred to 

25 in this Act as the ‘‘USAID Administrator’’) shall award 

26 at least 50 percent of the number of scholarships under 


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1 the Merit and Needs-Based Scholarship Program (re2 ferred to in this Act as the ‘‘Program’’) to women for each 

3 of the calendar years 2014 through 2016. 

4 (b) LIMITATIONS.— 

5 (1) CRITERIA.—The scholarships available 

6 under subsection (a) may only be awarded in accord7 ance with other scholarship eligibility criteria already 

8 established by USAID. 

9 (2) ACADEMIC DISCIPLINES.—Scholarships au10 thorized under subsection (a) shall be awarded for a 

11 range of disciplines to improve the employability of 

12 graduates and to meet the needs of the scholarship 

13 recipients. 

14 (3) OTHER SCHOLARSHIPS.—The USAID Ad15 ministrator shall make every effort to award 50 per16 cent of the scholarships available under the Program 

17 to Pakistani women. 

18 (c) LEVERAGING INVESTMENT.—The USAID Ad19 ministrator shall, to the greatest extent practicable, con20 sult with and leverage investments by the Pakistani pri21 vate sector and Pakistani diaspora communities in the 

22 United States as part of USAID’s greater effort to im23 prove the quality of, expand access to, and ensure sustain24 ability of education programs in Pakistan. 


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1 SEC. 5. ANNUAL CONGRESSIONAL BRIEFING. 

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

3 designate appropriate USAID officials to brief the appro4 priate congressional committees, not later than 1 year 

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

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

7 section 4. 

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

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

10 the most recently concluded fiscal year— 

11 (1) the total number of scholarships that were 

12 awarded through the Program, including a break13 down by gender; 

14 (2) the disciplines of study chosen by the schol15 arship recipients; 

16 (3) the percentage of the scholarships that were 

17 awarded to students seeking a bachelor’s degree or 

18 a master’s degree, respectively; 

19 (4) the percentage of scholarship recipients who 

20 voluntarily dropped out of school or were involun21 tarily pushed out of the program for failure to meet 

22 program requirements; and 

23 (5) the percentage of scholarship recipients who 

24 dropped out of school due to retaliation for seeking 


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1 an education, to the extent that such information is 

2 available. 

Passed the House of Representatives November 19, 

2014. 

Attest: KAREN L. HAAS, 

Clerk. 


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Calendar No. 603 

113TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 3583 

AN ACT 

To expand the number of scholarships available to 

Based Scholarship Program. Pakistani women under the Merit and NeedsNOVEMBER 20, 2014 

Received; read twice and placed on the calendar 


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