I 

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. 

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 ‘‘Ambassador’s Fund 

5 for Strategic Exchanges Act of 2009’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress makes the following findings: 

8 (1) The United States has a strategic national 

9 interest in improving its image around the world, 

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1 given the historically low levels of public opinion to2 ward the United States in many countries. 

3 (2) International exchange programs have been 

4 proven to be one of the most beneficial and cost-ef5 fective means by which to promote mutual under6 standing between citizens of the United States and 

7 citizens of other countries and to advance United 

8 States national interests through closer working 

9 partnerships with leaders around the world. 

10 (3) Prominent world leaders during recent dec11 ades, such as Tony Blair and Anwar Sadat, have 

12 deepened their friendship and openness to the 

13 United States through international exchanges, and 

14 many persons who previously had highly anti-Amer15 ican opinions have changed their views after partici16 pating in exchange programs organized by the 

17 United States Government. 

18 (4) United States exchange programs, such as 

19 the International Visitors Program, make a tremen20 dous impact in the lives of those individuals who 

21 participate and consistently are ranked by public di22 plomacy experts as some of the most effective public 

23 diplomacy programs. 

24 (5) The International Visitors Program of the 

25 United States Department of State organizes exmstockstill on PROD1PC66 with BILLS

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1 change programs for anticipated future leaders in 

2 their countries who travel to the United States for 

3 programs generally of three weeks, and it produces 

4 very positive results among its target audience. 

5 (6) Another key target audience for United 

6 States exchanges is not addressed by the Inter7 national Visitors Program; this group includes cur8 rent political, economic, and civil society leaders, 

9 often from less privileged backgrounds, who have not 

10 traveled to the United States previously. 

11 (7) Such persons currently in leadership posi12 tions in their countries are often unable to leave 

13 their jobs for a period of three weeks, given the 

14 press of their responsibilities, and United States em15 bassies administering exchange programs not infre16 quently find that identified candidates for Inter17 national Visitor Program exchanges decline partici18 pation because of this fact. 

19 (8) A number of United States embassies, in20 cluding the embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, have piloted 

21 country-specific, embassy-initiated exchange pro22 grams targeted to such groups of current leaders 

23 who have never traveled to the United States. These 

24 programs generally last from 5-7 program days and 

25 bring together 8-10 participants from a country who 

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1 work on similar issues but have not worked with 

2 each other before. Some of these programs have 

3 been coordinated with the Voluntary Visitors Divi4 sion of the International Visitors Office in the Bu5 reau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the De6 partment of State. 

7 (9) Such programs have proven highly effective 

8 in having an immediate impact on current leaders 

9 working in key sectors and in helping advance 

10 United States interests such as greater democratiza11 tion, observance of human rights, economic reform 

12 and poverty alleviation, empowerment of women and 

13 girls, and improved cooperation with the United 

14 States in confronting threats from organized crime, 

15 narco-trafficking, and terrorist groups. These pro16 grams also promote greater cooperation across sec17 tors, agencies, and regions within a country, given 

18 the shared experience the exchange visitors have to19 gether during their trip to the United States. 

20 (10) A key element of the success of these pilot 

21 exchanges is that they are conceived and developed 

22 in individual embassies overseas, keyed to specific 

23 interests of the United States in each country. 

24 (11) However, these pilot exchanges currently 

25 have not been replicated widely within the Departmstockstill on PROD1PC66 with BILLS

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1 ment of State, being confined to only a few United 

2 States embassies around the world, because there 

3 are no Department-wide programmatic guidelines or 

4 central funding for these exchange programs. 

5 SEC. 3. AMBASSADOR’S FUND FOR STRATEGIC EXCHANGES. 

6 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of State shall es7 tablish in the Voluntary Visitors Division of the Office of 

8 International Visitors in the Bureau of Educational and 

9 Cultural Affairs a program to conduct public diplomacy 

10 exchanges, to be known as the ‘‘Ambassador’s Fund for 

11 Strategic Exchanges’’, to bring political, economic, civil 

12 society, and other leaders to the United States for short13 term exchange visits in order to advance key United States 

14 strategic goals. 

15 (b) COORDINATION.—Under the program established 

16 pursuant to subsection (a), each United States embassy 

17 and the Office of International Visitors shall coordinate 

18 to develop the short-term exchange visits described in such 

19 subsection. 

20 (c) NUMBER AND DURATION.—The short-term ex21 change visits shall be for groups of up to between eight 

22 and ten participants, and shall be for visits of five to eight 

23 days. 

24 (d) AREAS OF FOCUS.—The key United States stra25 tegic goals referred to in subsection (a) may include the 

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1 following, as determined by the individual United States 

2 embassy and the Office of International Visitors: 

3 (1) Strengthening democracy and human 

4 rights. 

5 (2) Advancing the rule of law. 

6 (3) Strengthening cooperation in the fight 

7 against terrorism, organized crime, and drug traf8 ficking. 

9 (4) Reducing poverty and promoting economic 

10 reform. 

11 (5) Empowering women and girls. 

12 (6) Broadening political and economic partici13 pation to include traditionally excluded groups. 

14 (7) Other embassy and Office of International 

15 Visitors-identified priority purposes. 

16 (e) SELECTION.—The Bureau of Educational and 

17 Cultural Affairs shall solicit proposals from United States 

18 embassies for short-term exchange visits and select among 

19 them on a competitive basis. 

20 (f) COST-SHARING AND FUNDING.— 

21 (1) IN GENERAL.—In accordance with para22 graphs (2) and (3), as appropriate, the Bureau of 

23 Educational and Cultural Affairs and the United 

24 States embassies shall engage in cost-sharing in car25 rying out the short-term exchange visits. 

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1 (2) BUREAU OF EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL

2 AFFAIRS.—From amounts authorized to be appro3 priated to carry out this Act pursuant to section 4 

4 and from amounts made available for the regular 

5 program budget of the Voluntary Visitors Division, 

6 such sums as may be necessary are authorized to be 

7 appropriated to the Bureau of Educational and Cul8 tural Affairs to carry out the short-term exchange 

9 visits. Such visits shall be treated in the same man10 ner as Voluntary Visitor trips are treated. 

11 (3) UNITED STATES EMBASSIES.— 

12 (A) IN GENERAL.—From amounts author13 ized to be appropriated to carry out this Act 

14 and from amounts made available for the public 

15 diplomacy budgets of United States embassies, 

16 such sums as may be necessary are authorized 

17 to be appropriated to such embassies to carry 

18 out the short-term exchange visits. Allowable 

19 expenses associated with such visits include air20 fares, pre-departure expenses, and such other 

21 expenses as are needed to allow individuals to 

22 travel to the United States to participate in 

23 such visits. 

24 (B) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in 

25 this section may be construed as imposing any 

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1 restrictions, such as restrictions included in the 

2 Foreign Affairs Manual of the Department of 

3 State, on the ability of United States embassies 

4 to pay for airfares of individuals participating 

5 in the short-term exchange visits. 

6 SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

7 (a) IN GENERAL.—There are authorized to be appro8 priated to the Secretary of State such sums as may be 

9 necessary to carry out this Act. 

10 (b) ADDITIONAL AMOUNTS.—In addition to amounts 

11 authorized to be appropriated pursuant to subsection (a), 

12 there are authorized to be appropriated $1,500,000 to the 

13 International Visitors Program for Professional and Cul14 tural Exchanges for short-term exchange visits conducted 

15 under the auspices of the Ambassador’s Fund for Stra16 tegic Exchanges. Such amounts shall be administered by 

17 the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. 

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