Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair John Kerry (D-MA) and Ranking Member Richard Lugar (R-IN) introduced on Friday the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 2010 and 2011 (see the full bill here). Described in a press release from Kerry and Lugar as “comprehensive bi-partisan legislation,” this authorization would “provide authority, policy guidance, and operational oversight to the State Department.”

In June 2009, the House Foreign Affairs Committee, led by Chair Howard Berman (D-CA), passed its own State Department authorization bill. If a final bill were passed out of the Senate and reconciled with the House version, it would be the first time since 2002 that Congress passed a State Department authorization bill.

Kerry and Lugar’s authorization bill addresses a number of broad areas, though it is “narrower in scope” than the House bill, CQ.com noted. Areas of focus in Kerry and Lugar’s bill include: modernizing the State Department and building U.S. diplomatic capacity (including the hiring of 1,500 additional Foreign Service Officers in 2010 and 2011, as well as 700 additional USAID development workers); increasing the accountability of diplomatic and development programs; strengthening U.S. public diplomacy, including the (re)opening of publicly accessible American Centers; reforming visa and passport processing; and renewing U.S. commitment to international organizations.

With regard to exchanges, the bill notes that educational and cultural exchange programs would be appropriated “such sums as may be necessary for each of fiscal years 2010 and 2011,” referring to the final sums appropriated to exchanges by the State and Foreign Operations appropriations subcommittees.

The bill specifically mentions increasing exchanges for “scientific, medicine, research, and academic sectors,” including the Science Envoy Program, as well as “film makers and nongovernmental organizations that use independently produced documentary films to promote better understanding of the United States among individuals in other countries and global perspectives and other countries among individuals in the United States.”

Kerry and Lugar’s bill also grants the Secretary of State authority to establish exchange programs for Department of State employees, including Foreign Service Officers, in which officers or employees would be assigned to a position with a foreign government or international entity for no more than one year.

Unlike the House bill, the Senate legislation does not include authorizing language for a Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation.