Pennsylvania Appropriator Stresses Power of Exchanges During House Hearing on FY2018 State Department Budget

During this week’s House State-Foreign Operations (SFOPS) Appropriations Subcommittee Hearing on the administration’s FY2018 budget request for the Department of State, Pennsylvania Congressman Charlie Dent (R) voiced his strong support for educational and cultural exchange programs and expressed concern about the 55% cut to exchange program funding proposed by the Trump administration for FY2018.Focusing particularly on the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX) program, Congressman Dent explained:

“On cultural exchange programs – something that’s important. It’s a 55% cut. I’m familiar with one of them, the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange program ... We invest in that, the Germans invest in it. The highest levels of that government will talk to me about it and say it’s important … I think when we make these kinds of cuts, we have to think about not only our investment but others who are investing in the same types of programs. Particularly allies and particularly when they’re relatively small numbers of dollars and multibillion dollar budgets. I think we have to be a little bit more nuanced and precise because I think it sends a message for a relatively small amount of money. It sends a bad message … In that case, we’re talking about former enemies who are now great allies.”

To which Secretary Tillerson replied:

“I think not just in allies but even as we’re trying to develop relationships with adversaries, to give us the ability to talk to one another and understand one another, these types of cultural people-to-people programs are very important. … The best diplomatic tool really is economic development and economic relations between countries because as people can tie their own economic well-being to this other nation and they see benefits of those relationships, that strengthens the understanding of the population of one another. The cultural exchanges only help strengthen that.”

To read about the Senate Hearing, please click here