[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 120 Reported in Senate (RS)]

                                                       Calendar No. 217
113th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 120

  A bill to expand the number of scholarships available to Pakistani 
       women under the Merit and Needs-Based Scholarship Program.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

             January 23 (legislative day, January 3), 2013

  Mrs. Boxer (for herself, Ms. Landrieu, Mr. Coons, Mr. Menendez, and 
 Mrs. Shaheen) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
             referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations

                            October 10, 2013

              Reported by Mr. Menendez, with an amendment
 [Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed 
                               in italic]

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  A bill to expand the number of scholarships available to Pakistani 
       women under the Merit and Needs-Based Scholarship Program.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

<DELETED>SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.</DELETED>

<DELETED>    This Act may be cited as the ``Malala Yousafzai 
Scholarship Act'''.</DELETED>

<DELETED>SEC. 2. FINDINGS.</DELETED>

<DELETED>    (a) Findings.--Congress makes the following 
findings:</DELETED>
        <DELETED>    (1) On October 9, 2012, 15-year-old Malala 
        Yousafzai was shot in the head by Taliban gunmen in Pakistan on 
        her way home from school.</DELETED>
        <DELETED>    (2) When Malala was 11 years old, she bravely 
        stood up to the Taliban and wrote a secret blog documenting 
        their crackdown on women's rights and education in 
        2009.</DELETED>
        <DELETED>    (3) Malala's advocacy for women's education made 
        her a target of the Taliban.</DELETED>
        <DELETED>    (4) The Taliban called Malala's efforts to 
        highlight the need for women's education an 
        ``obscenity''.</DELETED>
        <DELETED>    (5) According to the United Nation's 2012 
        Education for All Global Monitoring Report, ``Pakistan has the 
        second largest number of children out of school [in the 
        world]'' and ``nearly half of rural females have never been to 
        school.''.</DELETED>
        <DELETED>    (6) According to a Council on Foreign Relations 
        report titled ``What Works in Girls' Education'', ``A 100-
        country study by the World Bank shows that increasing the share 
        of women with a secondary education by 1 percent boosts annual 
        per capita income growth by 0.3 percentage points.''.</DELETED>
        <DELETED>    (7) According to the World Bank, ``The benefits of 
        women's education go beyond higher productivity for 50 percent 
        of the population. More educated women also tend to be 
        healthier, participate more in the formal labor market, earn 
        more income, have fewer children, and provide better health 
        care and education to their children, all of which eventually 
        improve the well-being of all individuals and lift households 
        out of poverty. These benefits also transmit across 
        generations, as well as to their communities at 
        large.''.</DELETED>
        <DELETED>    (8) According to United Nation's 2012 Education 
        For All Global Monitoring Report, ``education can make a big 
        difference to women's earnings. In Pakistan, women with a high 
        level of literacy earned 95 percent more than women with no 
        literacy skills.''.</DELETED>
        <DELETED>    (9) In January 2010, Secretary of State Hillary 
        Rodham Clinton stated, ``We will open the doors of education to 
        all citizens, but especially to girls and women . . . We are 
        doing all of these things because we have seen that when women 
        and girls have the tools to stay healthy and the opportunity to 
        contribute to their families' well-being, they flourish and so 
        do the people around them.''.</DELETED>
        <DELETED>    (10) The United States provides critical foreign 
        assistance to Pakistan's education sector to improve access to 
        and the quality of basic and higher education.</DELETED>
        <DELETED>    (11) The Merit and Needs-Based Scholarship Program 
        administered by the United States Agency for International 
        Development awards scholarships to academically talented, 
        financially needy Pakistani students from remote regions of the 
        country to pursue bachelor's or master's degrees at 
        participating Pakistani universities.</DELETED>
        <DELETED>    (12) Twenty-five percent of the 1,807 Merit and 
        Needs-Based Scholarships awarded to date have been for women, 
        with the goal of awarding 50 percent of the scholarships for 
        fall 2013 matriculation to women.</DELETED>
        <DELETED>    (13) The United Nations declared November 10 as 
        ``Malala Day''--a global day of support for and recognition of 
        Malala's bravery and courage in promoting women's 
        education.</DELETED>
        <DELETED>    (14) On December 10, 2012, the United Nations and 
        the Government of Pakistan launched the ``Malala Fund for 
        Girls' Education'' to improve girls' access to education 
        worldwide, with Pakistan donating the first $10,000,000 to the 
        Fund.</DELETED>
        <DELETED>    (15) The Government of Pakistan has stated that it 
        plans to open 16 schools for poor children in areas affected by 
        conflict or natural disasters and name them ``Malala Schools'' 
        after Malala Yousafzai.</DELETED>
        <DELETED>    (16) The Government of Pakistan, the United 
        Nations, the World Bank, and other international organizations 
        have set an April 2013 deadline to put forward a plan to 
        provide education for all of Pakistan's school-aged children by 
        the end of 2015.</DELETED>
        <DELETED>    (17) More than 1,000,000 people around the world 
        have signed the United Nations Special Envoy for Global 
        Education petition calling on the Government of Pakistan to 
        enroll every boy and girl in primary school.</DELETED>
        <DELETED>    (18) Pakistani civil society organizations 
        collected an additional 1,200,000 signatures from Pakistanis on 
        a petition dedicated to Malala's cause.</DELETED>

<DELETED>SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.</DELETED>

<DELETED>    (a) In General.--It is the sense of Congress that--
</DELETED>
        <DELETED>    (1) education and freedom from discrimination are 
        fundamental human rights; and</DELETED>
        <DELETED>    (2) educational exchanges increase people-to-
        people ties and promote institutional linkages between the 
        United States and other countries.</DELETED>
<DELETED>    (b) Continued Support for Educational Initiatives in 
Pakistan.--Congress encourages the Department of State and the United 
States Agency for International Development to continue their support 
for initiatives led by the Government of Pakistan and Pakistani civil 
society that promote education in Pakistan, especially education for 
women.</DELETED>

<DELETED>SEC. 4. MERIT AND NEEDS-BASED SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM.</DELETED>

<DELETED>    (a) Expansion.--The USAID Administrator shall increase the 
number of scholarships available under the Merit and Needs-Based 
Scholarship Program (referred to in this Act as the ``Program'') 
administered by the United States Agency for International Development 
(referred to in this Act as ``USAID'') during each of the fiscal years 
2013 through 2016 by 30 percent compared to the number of scholarships 
awarded during fiscal year 2012.</DELETED>
<DELETED>    (b) Limitations.--</DELETED>
        <DELETED>    (1) Women.--The additional scholarships available 
        under subsection (a) may only be awarded to women, in 
        accordance with other scholarship eligibility criteria already 
        established by USAID.</DELETED>
        <DELETED>    (2) Academic disciplines.--Additional scholarships 
        added by subsection (a) shall be awarded for a range of 
        disciplines to improve the employability of graduates and to 
        meet the needs of the scholarship recipients.</DELETED>
        <DELETED>    (3) Other scholarships.--The USAID Administrator 
        shall make every effort to award 50 percent of the scholarships 
        available under the Program (excluding the additional 
        scholarships available under subsection (a)) to Pakistani 
        women.</DELETED>

<DELETED>SEC. 5. ANNUAL CONGRESSIONAL BRIEFING.</DELETED>

<DELETED>    (a) In General.--The USAID Administrator shall designate 
appropriate USAID officials to brief the appropriate congressional 
committees, not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this 
Act, and annually thereafter for the next 3 years, on the 
implementation of section 4.</DELETED>
<DELETED>    (b) Contents.--The briefing described in subsection (a) 
shall include, among other relevant information, for the most recently 
concluded fiscal year--</DELETED>
        <DELETED>    (1) the total number of scholarships that were 
        awarded through the Program;</DELETED>
        <DELETED>    (2) the disciplines of study chosen by the 
        scholarship recipients;</DELETED>
        <DELETED>    (3) the percentage of the scholarships that were 
        awarded to students seeking a bachelor's degree or a master's 
        degree, respectively; and</DELETED>
        <DELETED>    (4) the percentage of scholarship recipients that 
        voluntarily dropped out of school or were involuntarily pushed 
        out of the program for failure to meet program 
        requirements.</DELETED>

<DELETED>SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.</DELETED>

<DELETED>    (a) Transfer of Security Assistance Funding.--Of the 
amounts appropriated for fiscal years 2013 and 2014 pursuant to the 
authorization under title II of the Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan 
Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-73), $400,000 shall be made available in 
each of the fiscal years 2013 and 2014 for the Program.</DELETED>
<DELETED>    (b) Funding for Additional Scholarships for Pakistani 
Women.--Of the amounts appropriated for fiscal years 2015 and 2016 for 
the purpose of providing assistance to Pakistan under the Foreign 
Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151 et seq.), $400,000 shall be made 
available in each of the fiscal years 2015 and 2016 for the 
Program.</DELETED>
<DELETED>    (c) Availability.--Amounts made available in subsections 
(a) and (b) shall remain available until expended.</DELETED>

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Malala Yousafzai Scholarship Act'''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    (a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) On October 9, 2012, 15-year-old Malala Yousafzai was 
        shot in the head by Taliban gunmen in Pakistan on her way home 
        from school.
            (2) When Malala was 11 years old, she bravely stood up to 
        the Taliban and wrote a secret blog documenting their crackdown 
        on women's rights and education in 2009.
            (3) Malala's advocacy for women's education made her a 
        target of the Taliban.
            (4) The Taliban called Malala's efforts to highlight the 
        need for women's education an ``obscenity''.
            (5) On July 12, 2013, Malala celebrated her 16th birthday 
        by delivering a speech before the United Nations General 
        Assembly in which she said, ``So let us wage a glorious 
        struggle against illiteracy, poverty, and terrorism. Let us 
        pick up our books and our pens. They are the most powerful 
        weapons. One child, one teacher, one book, and one pen can 
        change the world. Education is the only solution.''.
            (6) According to the United Nation's 2012 Education for All 
        Global Monitoring Report, ``Pakistan has the second largest 
        number of children out of school [in the world]'' and ``nearly 
        half of rural females have never been to school.''.
            (7) According to a Council on Foreign Relations report 
        titled ``What Works in Girls' Education'', ``A 100-country 
        study by the World Bank shows that increasing the share of 
        women with a secondary education by 1 percent boosts annual per 
        capita income growth by 0.3 percentage points.''.
            (8) According to the World Bank, ``The benefits of women's 
        education go beyond higher productivity for 50 percent of the 
        population. More educated women also tend to be healthier, 
        participate more in the formal labor market, earn more income, 
        have fewer children, and provide better health care and 
        education to their children, all of which eventually improve 
        the well-being of all individuals and lift households out of 
        poverty. These benefits also transmit across generations, as 
        well as to their communities at large.''.
            (9) According to United Nation's 2012 Education For All 
        Global Monitoring Report, ``education can make a big difference 
        to women's earnings. In Pakistan, women with a high level of 
        literacy earned 95 percent more than women with no literacy 
        skills.''.
            (10) In January 2010, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham 
        Clinton stated, ``We will open the doors of education to all 
        citizens, but especially to girls and women...We are doing all 
        of these things because we have seen that when women and girls 
        have the tools to stay healthy and the opportunity to 
        contribute to their families' well-being, they flourish and so 
        do the people around them.''.
            (11) The United States provides critical foreign assistance 
        to Pakistan's education sector to improve access to and the 
        quality of basic and higher education.
            (12) The Merit and Needs-Based Scholarship Program 
        administered by the United States Agency for International 
        Development awards scholarships to academically talented, 
        financially needy Pakistani students from remote regions of the 
        country to pursue bachelor's or master's degrees at 
        participating Pakistani universities.
            (13) Fifty percent of the 974 Merit and Needs-Based 
        Scholarships awarded during fiscal year 2013 were awarded to 
        Pakistani women. Historically, only 25 percent of such 
        scholarships have been awarded to women.
            (14) The United Nations declared July 12 as ``Malala 
        Day''--a global day of support for and recognition of Malala's 
        bravery and courage in promoting women's education.
            (15) On December 10, 2012, the United Nations and the 
        Government of Pakistan launched the ``Malala Fund for Girls' 
        Education'' to improve girls' access to education worldwide, 
        with Pakistan donating the first $10,000,000 to the Fund.
            (16) More than 1,000,000 people around the world have 
        signed the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education 
        petition calling on the Government of Pakistan to enroll every 
        boy and girl in primary school.
            (17) Pakistani civil society organizations collected almost 
        2,000,000 signatures from Pakistanis on a petition dedicated to 
        Malala's cause of education for all.

SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    (a) In General.--It is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) every individual should have the opportunity to pursue 
        an education;
            (2) every individual, regardless of gender, should have the 
        opportunity to pursue an education without fear of 
        discrimination; and
            (3) educational exchanges increase people-to-people ties 
        and promote institutional linkages between the United States 
        and other countries.
    (b) Continued Support for Educational Initiatives in Pakistan.--The 
Senate encourages the Department of State and the United States Agency 
for International Development to continue their support for initiatives 
led by the Government of Pakistan and Pakistani civil society that 
promote education in Pakistan, especially education for women.

SEC. 4. MERIT AND NEEDS-BASED SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM.

    (a) Expansion.--Using funding made available under section 6, the 
Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development 
(referred to in this Act as the ``USAID Administrator'') shall increase 
the number of scholarships to women under the Merit and Needs-Based 
Scholarship Program (referred to in this Act as the ``Program'') during 
each of the calendar years 2013 through 2015 over the level awarded to 
women in calendar year 2011.
    (b) Limitations.--
            (1) Criteria.--The additional scholarships available under 
        subsection (a) may only be awarded in accordance with other 
        scholarship eligibility criteria already established by USAID.
            (2) Academic disciplines.--Additional scholarships 
        authorized under subsection (a) shall be awarded for a range of 
        disciplines to improve the employability of graduates and to 
        meet the needs of the scholarship recipients.
            (3) Other scholarships.--The USAID Administrator shall make 
        every effort to award 50 percent of the scholarships available 
        under the Program to Pakistani women.

SEC. 5. ANNUAL CONGRESSIONAL BRIEFING.

    (a) In General.--The USAID Administrator shall designate 
appropriate USAID officials to brief the appropriate congressional 
committees, not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this 
Act, and annually thereafter for the next 3 years, on the 
implementation of section 4.
    (b) Contents.--The briefing described in subsection (a) shall 
include, among other relevant information, for the most recently 
concluded fiscal year--
            (1) the total number of scholarships that were awarded 
        through the Program;
            (2) the disciplines of study chosen by the scholarship 
        recipients;
            (3) the percentage of the scholarships that were awarded to 
        students seeking a bachelor's degree or a master's degree, 
        respectively; and
            (4) the percentage of scholarship recipients that 
        voluntarily dropped out of school or were involuntarily pushed 
        out of the program for failure to meet program requirements.

SEC. 6. FUNDING.

    Of the amounts that have been appropriated for assistance to 
Pakistan under the heading ``Economic Support Fund'' pursuant to 
chapter 4 of part II of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 
2346 et seq.) and remain unobligated as of the date of the enactment of 
this Act, the Secretary of State shall make available not less than 
$3,000,000 for scholarships authorized under section 4(a). Amounts made 
available under this section shall remain available until expended.
                                                       Calendar No. 217

113th CONGRESS

  1st Session

                                 S. 120

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

  A bill to expand the number of scholarships available to Pakistani 
       women under the Merit and Needs-Based Scholarship Program.

_______________________________________________________________________

                            October 10, 2013

                       Reported with an amendment