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[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2985 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2985

 To establish a public diplomacy international exchange program to be 
 known as the Ambassador's Fund for Strategic Exchanges, and for other 
                               purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 19, 2009

Mr. Moran of Virginia introduced the following bill; which was referred 
                  to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
 To establish a public diplomacy international exchange program to be 
 known as the Ambassador's Fund for Strategic Exchanges, and for other 
                               purposes.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Ambassador's Fund for Strategic 
Exchanges Act of 2009''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) The United States has a strategic national interest in 
        improving its image around the world, given the historically 
        low levels of public opinion toward the United States in many 
        countries.
            (2) International exchange programs have been proven to be 
        one of the most beneficial and cost-effective means by which to 
        promote mutual understanding between citizens of the United 
        States and citizens of other countries and to advance United 
        States national interests through closer working partnerships 
        with leaders around the world.
            (3) Prominent world leaders during recent decades, such as 
        Tony Blair and Anwar Sadat, have deepened their friendship and 
        openness to the United States through international exchanges, 
        and many persons who previously had highly anti-American 
        opinions have changed their views after participating in 
        exchange programs organized by the United States Government.
            (4) United States exchange programs, such as the 
        International Visitors Program, make a tremendous impact in the 
        lives of those individuals who participate and consistently are 
        ranked by public diplomacy experts as some of the most 
        effective public diplomacy programs.
            (5) The International Visitors Program of the United States 
        Department of State organizes exchange programs for anticipated 
        future leaders in their countries who travel to the United 
        States for programs generally of three weeks, and it produces 
        very positive results among its target audience.
            (6) Another key target audience for United States exchanges 
        is not addressed by the International Visitors Program; this 
        group includes current political, economic, and civil society 
        leaders, often from less privileged backgrounds, who have not 
        traveled to the United States previously.
            (7) Such persons currently in leadership positions in their 
        countries are often unable to leave their jobs for a period of 
        three weeks, given the press of their responsibilities, and 
        United States embassies administering exchange programs not 
        infrequently find that identified candidates for International 
        Visitor Program exchanges decline participation because of this 
        fact.
            (8) A number of United States embassies, including the 
        embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, have piloted country-specific, 
        embassy-initiated exchange programs targeted to such groups of 
        current leaders who have never traveled to the United States. 
        These programs generally last from 5-7 program days and bring 
        together 8-10 participants from a country who work on similar 
        issues but have not worked with each other before. Some of 
        these programs have been coordinated with the Voluntary 
        Visitors Division of the International Visitors Office in the 
        Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the Department of 
        State.
            (9) Such programs have proven highly effective in having an 
        immediate impact on current leaders working in key sectors and 
        in helping advance United States interests such as greater 
        democratization, observance of human rights, economic reform 
        and poverty alleviation, empowerment of women and girls, and 
        improved cooperation with the United States in confronting 
        threats from organized crime, narco-trafficking, and terrorist 
        groups. These programs also promote greater cooperation across 
        sectors, agencies, and regions within a country, given the 
        shared experience the exchange visitors have together during 
        their trip to the United States.
            (10) A key element of the success of these pilot exchanges 
        is that they are conceived and developed in individual 
        embassies overseas, keyed to specific interests of the United 
        States in each country.
            (11) However, these pilot exchanges currently have not been 
        replicated widely within the Department of State, being 
        confined to only a few United States embassies around the 
        world, because there are no Department-wide programmatic 
        guidelines or central funding for these exchange programs.

SEC. 3. AMBASSADOR'S FUND FOR STRATEGIC EXCHANGES.

    (a) In General.--The Secretary of State shall establish in the 
Voluntary Visitors Division of the Office of International Visitors in 
the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs a program to conduct 
public diplomacy exchanges, to be known as the ``Ambassador's Fund for 
Strategic Exchanges'', to bring political, economic, civil society, and 
other leaders to the United States for short-term exchange visits in 
order to advance key United States strategic goals.
    (b) Coordination.--Under the program established pursuant to 
subsection (a), each United States embassy and the Office of 
International Visitors shall coordinate to develop the short-term 
exchange visits described in such subsection.
    (c) Number and Duration.--The short-term exchange visits shall be 
for groups of up to between eight and ten participants, and shall be 
for visits of five to eight days.
    (d) Areas of Focus.--The key United States strategic goals referred 
to in subsection (a) may include the following, as determined by the 
individual United States embassy and the Office of International 
Visitors:
            (1) Strengthening democracy and human rights.
            (2) Advancing the rule of law.
            (3) Strengthening cooperation in the fight against 
        terrorism, organized crime, and drug trafficking.
            (4) Reducing poverty and promoting economic reform.
            (5) Empowering women and girls.
            (6) Broadening political and economic participation to 
        include traditionally excluded groups.
            (7) Other embassy and Office of International Visitors-
        identified priority purposes.
    (e) Selection.--The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs 
shall solicit proposals from United States embassies for short-term 
exchange visits and select among them on a competitive basis.
    (f) Cost-sharing and Funding.--
            (1) In general.--In accordance with paragraphs (2) and (3), 
        as appropriate, the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs 
        and the United States embassies shall engage in cost-sharing in 
        carrying out the short-term exchange visits.
            (2) Bureau of educational and cultural affairs.--From 
        amounts authorized to be appropriated to carry out this Act 
        pursuant to section 4 and from amounts made available for the 
        regular program budget of the Voluntary Visitors Division, such 
        sums as may be necessary are authorized to be appropriated to 
        the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs to carry out the 
        short-term exchange visits. Such visits shall be treated in the 
        same manner as Voluntary Visitor trips are treated.
            (3) United states embassies.--
                    (A) In general.--From amounts authorized to be 
                appropriated to carry out this Act and from amounts 
                made available for the public diplomacy budgets of 
                United States embassies, such sums as may be necessary 
                are authorized to be appropriated to such embassies to 
                carry out the short-term exchange visits. Allowable 
                expenses associated with such visits include airfares, 
                pre-departure expenses, and such other expenses as are 
                needed to allow individuals to travel to the United 
                States to participate in such visits.
                    (B) Rule of construction.--Nothing in this section 
                may be construed as imposing any restrictions, such as 
                restrictions included in the Foreign Affairs Manual of 
                the Department of State, on the ability of United 
                States embassies to pay for airfares of individuals 
                participating in the short-term exchange visits.

SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    (a) In General.--There are authorized to be appropriated to the 
Secretary of State such sums as may be necessary to carry out this Act.
    (b) Additional Amounts.--In addition to amounts authorized to be 
appropriated pursuant to subsection (a), there are authorized to be 
appropriated $1,500,000 to the International Visitors Program for 
Professional and Cultural Exchanges for short-term exchange visits 
conducted under the auspices of the Ambassador's Fund for Strategic 
Exchanges. Such amounts shall be administered by the Bureau of 
Educational and Cultural Affairs.
                                 <all>
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