89TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 2874 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES AUGUST 10 (legislative day, August 9), 1966 Referred to the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare and ordered to be printed AMENDMENT Intended to be proposed by Mr. JAVITS to S. 2874, a bill to provide for the strengthening of American educational resources for international studies and research, viz: At the end of the bill add the following: 1 AMENDMENTS TO MUTUAL EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL 2 3 EXCHANGE ACT OF 1961 SEC. 9. (a) Section 102 (b) of the Mutual Educational 4 and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2452) is 5 amended (1) by striking the period at the end of clause (9) 6 and substituting a semicolon; and (2) by adding at the end 7 thereof a new clause as follows: "(10) promoting studies, research, instruction, and 8 9 other educational activities of citizens and nationals of Amdt. No. 736 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 15 2 foreign countries in American schools, colleges, and universities located in the United States by making avail able to citizens and nationals of less developed friendly foreign countries for exchange for currencies of their respective countries (other than excess foreign currencies), at United States embassies, United States dollars in such amounts as may be necessary to enable such foreign citizens or nationals who are coming temporarily to the United States as students, trainees, teachers, instructors, or professors to meet expenses of the kind described in section 104 (e) (1) of this Act." (b) Section 104 of the Mutual Educational and Cul13 tural Exchange Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2454) is amended. 14 by adding at the end thereof a new subsection as follows: "(g) (1) For the purpose of performing functions 16 authorized by section 102 (b) (10) of this Act, the Presi17 dent is authorized to establish the exchange rates at which 18 all foreign currencies may be acquired through operations 19 under such section, and shall issue regulations binding upon. 20 all embassies with respect to the exchange rates to be appli21 cable in each of the respective countries where currency ex22 changes are authorized under such section. 23 “(2) In performing the functions authorized under sec 24 tion 102 (b) (10) of this Act, the President shall make 3 1 suitable arrangements for protecting the interests of the 2 United States Government in connection with the owner3 ship, use, and disposition of all foreign currencies acquired 4 pursuant to exchanges made under such section. 5 "(3) The total amount of United States dollars ac6 quired by any individual through currency exchanges under 7 the authority of section 102 (a) (10) of this Act shall in 8 no event exceed $3,000 during any academic year. 9 "(4) An individual shall be eligible to exchange for10 eign currency for United States dollars at United States 11 embassies under section 102 (b) (10) of this Act only if 12 he gives satisfactory assurances that he will devote essen13 tially full time to his proposed educational activity in the 14 United States and will maintain good standing in relation to such program. 15 16 “(5) As used in section 102 (b) (10) of this Act, the 17 term 'excess foreign currencies' means foreign currencies, 18 which if acquired by the United States (A) would be in 19 excess of the normal requirements of departments, agencies, 20 and embassies of the United States for such currencies, as 21 determined by the President, and (B) would be available 22 for the use of the United States Government under ap23 plicable agreements with the foreign country concerned." 4 1 (c) Section 105 of the Mutual Educational and Cul2 tural Exchange Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2455) is amended 3 by adding at the end thereof a new subsection as follows: 4 "(g) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, 5 there are authorized to be appropriated for the purposes of 6 making currency exchanges under section 102 (b) (10) of 7 this Act, not to exceed $10,000,000 for the fiscal year 8 ending June 30, 1968, and not to exceed $15,000,000 9 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1969.". [From the Congressional Record, Aug. 10, 1966] STRENGTHENING OF AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES FOR AMENDMENT NO. 376 Mr. JAVITS. Mr. President, I submit an amendment, intended to be proposed by me to the bill (S. 2874) to provide for the strengthening of American educational resources for international studies and research. This amendment to amend the National Education Act of 1956, would authorize the U.S. Government to accept foreign currencies from qualified students and teachers in the less developed nations with currency conversion problems, in order to help their students study in this country. Currency expenses would apply only to the less developed friendly countries where the United States does not hold a surplus of local currencies. This would be for the foreign student an adaptation of what we call the Fulbright plan for Fulbright scholars, and the facts and figures point out that we have a great opportunity to help foreign students. Very few of them study here without any help from the U.S. Government. This is a field in which we compete so ardently with the Soviet Union and Communist China. The plan I propose would be an effective way to encourage this kind of study without costing the United States any material amount of money. I hope very much that Senators will consider this plan, which I call an "education for peace" plan, and that it may have widespread support in the Senate. This proposal would supplement the educational exchange program under the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961-the Fulbright-Hays Act-which presently brings between 5,000 and 6,000 students into the United States annually on a scholarship basis at a cost of some $18 million a year. Under my amendment, U.S. funds would not be used to finance the education of these foreign students but rather would be employed to enable them to exchange their foreign currency for dollars in order that they might be able to finance their own education or use local scholarship money for study in this country. Thus, my amendment will enable U.S. colleges and universities to increase their export of knowledge. An exchange limit of $3,000 annually is set for each student, which is generally in line with the estimated average cost of $2,600 for a school year in a non-public U.S. college or university. For the first year of the program's operation, $10 million of U.S. currency would be made available; $15 million is authorized the second year. Thus, an estimated 3,300 students could benefit from the program the first year and 5,000 the second year. Last year, 82,045 students from 159 countries and territories attended more than 1,000 colleges and universities throughout the United States. Of this number, 37 percent were studying on their own resources and only 7.2 percent received their tutition from the U.S. Government; the remainder received aid from their own governments or from private sources, including U.S. colleges and universities themselves. Since many nations still retain various forms of currency exchange control, this is a remarkable record. But the numbers of such students—many of whom are destined for leadership in their home countries-could be appreciably increased if the United States made a policy commitment to accept foreign students whose homelands have currency conversion difficulties. We do much the same thing in sales of food abroad under our food-for-peace program. This is, in effect, an education-for-peace program, exporting the knowledge of our colleges and universities rather than the harvests of our fields and farms. The United States should be encouraged in its own efforts to attract foreign students by the serious problems the Communists nations are having with their programs. Many Africans studying in both the Soviet Union and Communist China have complained of racial discrimination, restrictions on academic freedom, politically oriented rather than professionally oriented courses and heavyhanded attempts at proselytizing. We have a chance to do much better by providing an increased number of foreign students with an opportunity to observe and absorb within the United States the meaning of freedom in thought |