Whereas many polls and studies have indicated that the United States needs to do a better job of building personal and institutional relationships with peoples and nations around the world in order to combat anti-American sentiment; Whereas broad bipartisan consensus in favor of strengthening United States public diplomacy emerged during 2003 in both Houses of Congress and in various reports, including reports of the Council on Foreign Relations, the General Accounting Office, the Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, the Heritage Foundation, and the Advisory Group on Public Diplomacy for the Arab and Muslim World; Whereas in November 2003, NAFSA: Association of International Educators warned that the lack of knowledge of the world by people in the United States represents a serious liability in the fight against terrorism; Whereas international exchange programs, which have assisted in extending the global influence of the United States by educating many of the leaders of other countries, are suffering from a decline in funding and policy priority; Whereas only 160,920 United States university-level students studied abroad in 2001–2002, representing just over one percent of all United States students; Whereas two-thirds of United States students studying abroad study in Western Europe (18.7 percent in the United Kingdom alone), although 95 percent of the world population growth in the next 50 years is expected to occur outside Western Europe; Whereas the number of scholarships for foreign students studying at United States institutions has dropped from 20,000 a year in the 1980s to just 900 in 2003; Whereas there are 29,400,000 retired workers in the United States as of June 2003, representing a vast pool of older Americans who have the talent, maturity, and time to volunteer their services abroad; Whereas the average United States college graduate who has studied one of the less commonly taught languages reaches no more than an intermediate level of proficiency in the language, which is insufficient to meet national security requirements; and Whereas there are hundreds of well-established organizations in the United States that implement educational and professional exchanges, international volunteering, and related programs, and the efforts of those organizations could readily be expanded to reach out to more United States citizens: Now, therefore, be it

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Short title

This resolution may be cited as the

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Sense of the House of Representatives

It is the sense of the House of Representatives that— (1)the Secretary of State should coordinate with implementing partners to create an online database to provide information on how United States citizens can take advantage of— (A)international exchange programs of the Department of State, the Department of Education, and other Federal Government and non-government entities; (B)volunteer opportunities with organizations that assist refugees and immigrants in the United States; (C)opportunities to host international students and professionals in the United States; (D)sister-city organizations in the United States; (E)international fairs and cultural events in the United States; and (F)foreign language learning opportunities; (2)United States citizens should become more engaged in international affairs and more aware of peoples and developments outside the United States; and (3)United States citizens should take advantage of one or more opportunities to become more engaged and more aware, by such means as— (A)participating in a professional or cultural exchange; (B)studying abroad; (C)volunteering abroad; (D)working with an immigrant or refugee group; (E)hosting a foreign student or professional; (F)participating in a sister-city program; and (G)learning a foreign language.