On her first trip to Bangladesh, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Judith McHale met with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka and discussed “the need for increasing people-to-people contact as one of the ways to further strengthen the existing bilateral relations between the two countries,” the Bangladesh Awami League reported.

The Obama administration’s FY 2011 budget, released on Monday, requested $58.5 billion for the entire international affairs budget (or 150 Account), representing a $6.1 billion (or 11.6 per cent) increase over total FY 2010 enacted international affairs spending. As the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition reports, nearly 60 per cent of this increase would go to “Frontline States,” including Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq, leaving a modest growth of $2.5 billion for all other international affairs programs. If enacted, the FY 2011 international affairs budget would be 2.8 per cent above actual FY 2010 amounts, including supplemental appropriations.

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.”

The full conference agreement for the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act for FY 2010 is now available for download on the House Appropriations Committee website. The below chart details the allocations of the exchanges budget for FY 2010 (with FY 08 and 09 comparisons). Also download the chart in Excel format.

A press release from the Senate Appropriations Committee indicates that its FY 2010 State-Foreign Operations spending bill provides $635.2 million for State Department educational and cultural exchange programs, $2.2 million above the President’s request of $633 million, $35.2 million above the recently passed House level of $600 million, and $97.2 million above the FY 2009 level of $538 million. The Committee also recommends $8 million for competitive, one-time grants for exchanges.

The House passed its FY 2010 State-Foreign Operations spending bill yesterday by a vote of 318-106. The bill provides $48.8 billion for the State Department, foreign aid, and export assistance, including $600 million for educational and cultural exchange programs.

Also yesterday, the Senate Appropriations Committee took the first step with its own FY 2010 spending bill for State and Foreign Operations, approving by a 29-1 vote a measure that would provide $48.7 billion in discretionary funding.

At the same time the House goes to the floor today to pass its version of the State-Foreign Operations spending bill (in which educational and cultural exchanges are funded at $600 million, $33 million less than the Obama administration’s request but a $62 million increase over current levels), the Senate Appropriations Committee will begin work on its own State-Foreign Operations bill. Senators will seek to increase funding for diplomacy and the Foreign Service, “even as overall funding for foreign affairs takes a hit,” reports CQ.com:

The below action alert was circulated by the U.S. Global Leadership Campaign. Please take a few minutes to visit USGLC’s website and submit a letter supporting full funding for the House FY 2010 State, Foreign Operations Appropriations bill, which includes a request of $600 million for State Department educational and cultural exchange programs. This bill will be considered on the House floor by the end of the week.

Iraqi government officials announced the start of a program to provide scholarships to Iraqi students for study at universities in the United States and Britain, reports InsideHigherEd.com. While the initial plans for this program called for 10,000 scholarships to be awarded per year, for five years, it will initially proceed more modestly:

Farah Pandith, the recently appointed Special Representative to Muslim Communities at the State Department, held a special briefing on July 1 to address her new role. Pandith paid particular attention to engaging the “grassroots” and “mainstream” of Muslim societies in dialogue, as well as to understanding the “nuances” of the Muslim world: