[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 20 (Thursday, February 4, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1268-S1270]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. BIDEN:
  S. 372. A bill to make available funds under the Freedom Support Act 
to expand existing educational and professional exchanges with the 
Russian Federation to promote and strengthen democratic government and 
civil society in that country, and to make available funds under that 
Act to conduct a study of the feasibility of creating a new foundation 
toward that end; to the Committee on Foreign Relations.


             russian democratization assistance act of 1999

   Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, today I introduce legislation 
designed to assist the transition to democracy, a free-market economy, 
and civil society in the Russian Federation.
  Mr. President, the Russian Federation, which is currently undergoing 
severe political and economic crises, continues to possess thousands of 
nuclear warheads and the means to deliver them. If for no other reason, 
therefore, maintaining stability in Russia remains a vital national 
security concern of the United States.
  I have stated in detail on earlier occasions my belief that for the 
foreseeable future the time has passed for massive infusions of 
economic assistance to Russia. Since the collapse of Soviet communism, 
the capitalist world has injected into Russia more than one hundred 
billion dollars in grants, loans, and credits. Ultimately, however, the 
Russians themselves must take responsibility for putting their own 
economic house in order.
  With few exceptions, future American economic assistance to Russia 
should be predicated upon a systematic reform of its economic, tax, and 
criminal justice systems, and in greatly reducing the corruption that 
plagues nearly every facet of Russian life.
  The one exception I mentioned last summer was emergency food 
assistance to forestall starvation during the brutal Russian winter. I 
am happy that the Administration under the lead of Secretary of 
Agriculture Glickman has embarked upon just such a rescue program.
  But, Mr. President, in the absence of basic, large-scale economic 
aid, we must search for other means to assist Russia in its painful 
transition to democracy and free-enterprise capitalism.
  We are often mesmerized by current problems. So it is important to 
remember that since the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of 
1991, the Russian Federation has, in fact, made significant progress in 
democratizing its government and society.
  Building upon that progress, the continued development of democratic 
institutions and practice can, Mr. President, help to foster the 
stability in the Russian Federation that is squarely in America's 
national interest.

[[Page S1269]]

  Educational and professional exchanges with the Russian Federation 
have proven to be an effective, and remarkably low-cost, mechanism for 
enhancing democratization in that country. Moreover, these exchanges 
hold the promise of long-term, lasting pay-offs as the exchange 
participants move into positions of responsibility in public and 
private life.
  With that in mind, Mr. President, I am introducing the Russian 
Democratization Assistance Act of 1999.
  Recognizing that maintaining stability in the Russian Federation is a 
vital national security concern of the United States, this legislation 
authorizes the expansion of selected, already existing educational and 
professional exchanges with that country and authorizes a study of the 
feasibility of a Russia-based, internationally funded Foundation for 
Democracy.
  Specifically, the legislation increases authorization for each of 
fiscal year 2000 and fiscal year 2001 for several programs with the 
Russian Federation that have a proven track-record of excellence. My 
colleagues will note the unusually low amounts of funding involved in 
each of these programs.
  The annual authorization for the Russian portion of the Future 
Leaders Exchange Program, popularly known as the Bradley Scholarships 
after former Senator Bradley of New Jersey who sponsored the original 
legislation creating the program under the Freedom Support Act, will be 
increased to four million dollars from its current level of just over 
two million dollars. I am proud to have co-sponsored this program at 
its inception.
  Under the Future Leaders Exchange Program, high school students from 
the former Soviet Union are selected in national, merit-based, open 
competitions to live for one academic year in the United States with a 
host family and to study at an American high school.
  The United States Information Agency, now to be merged with the 
Department of State, works with two non-profit organizations--the 
American Council of Teachers of Russian and Youth for Understanding--on 
the recruitment, selection, orientation, and travel of the foreign 
students, and with twelve youth exchange organizations around our 
country in their placement and monitoring. Alumni are encouraged to 
join organizations when they return home and to participate in follow-
on activities coordinated by these two American organizations.
  Mr. President, the Future Leaders Exchange is universally recognized 
as a huge success. And what an investment.
  Annual authorized funding for the Russian portion of the Freedom 
Support Act Undergraduate Program would be increased to three million 
dollars from its current one-and-a-third million. In this program, 
foreign undergraduates are selected for one year of non-degree study in 
American universities, colleges, or community colleges in a variety of 
fields, including agriculture, business administration, communications 
and journalism, computer science, criminal justice studies, economics, 
education, environmental management, government, library and 
information sciences, public policy, and sociology.
  The American Council of Teachers of Russian, and Youth for 
Understanding administer this program for the United States Government.
  Another outstanding, highly relevant, program within the Freedom 
Support Act whose scope this legislation would increase is the 
Community Connections Program. The annual authorized funding for its 
Russian component would rise to fifteen million dollars from its 
current level of seven million.
  In the Community Connections Program, entrepreneurs, local government 
officials, education officials, legal professionals, and non-
governmental organization leaders are offered three-to-five week 
practical training opportunities in the United States. Forty local 
communities across this country host the participants, thereby creating 
grass-roots linkages between the United States and regions of Russia, 
which may enhance opportunities for exchanges to be sustained beyond 
the life of the assistance program.
  A very small but highly topical program that my legislation would 
expand is the Freedom Support Act Fellowships in Contemporary Issues. 
The Russian component of this program currently receives only $370,000. 
This act would nearly triple that annual authorization to one million 
dollars.
  Under the Contemporary Issues Program, government officials, leaders 
of non-governmental organizations, and private sector professionals 
from Russia receive three-month fellowships in the United States for 
research in several strategic areas. These include sustainable growth 
and development of economies in transition; democracy, human rights, 
and the rule of law; and the communications revolution and intellectual 
property rights.
  This program is administered through a grant awarded to the 
International Research and Exchanges Board, an organization with 
decades of experience in exchanges with Eastern Europe and the former 
Soviet Union.
  Finally, my legislation would greatly strengthen the Edmund S. Muskie 
Fellowship Program, named after our esteemed former colleague from 
Maine who later served the nation as Secretary of State. Annual 
authorized funding for the Russian portion of this program would rise 
to seven million dollars from its current level of nearly three-and-
three-quarter million dollars.
  Muskie Fellows receive fellowships for one-to-two years of graduate 
study at American universities in business administration, economics, 
law, or public administation. The program is administered by the 
American Council of Teachers of Russian and the American Council for 
Collaboration in Education and Language Study.
  The Muskie Fellowship Program is particularly important, since it 
gives the next generation of Russian professors on-site exposure to 
American scholarship and American society. The so-called ``multiplier 
effect'' that these professors will have upon their students will last 
for decades.
  Mr. President, the sum total authorization for these five innovative 
and highly successful exchange programs is only thirty million dollars 
per fiscal year. The benefits in enhancing democratization in Russia 
and in promoting Russian-American relations are significant. It is an 
investment in the future that we should make.
  Mr. President, the second part of this legislation concerns a grant 
of fifty thousand dollars to conduct a feasibility study of a Russia-
based, internationally funded foundation for democracy.
  The assassination last November in St. Petersburg of Galina 
Starovoitova, a former Member of the State Duma and Russia's most 
prominent female politician, was universally perceived as a defining 
moment. Starovoitova's murder, as yet unsolved, is seen as symptomatic 
of the growing power of organized crime and nationalist and communist 
extremists to undermine the foundations of the fragile Russian 
democracy.
  The shock of the assassination had not yet worn off when friends and 
admirers of Starovoitova around the world spontaneously began to 
consider ways to create something positive from the horror. Several 
individuals including Carl Gershman, President of the U.S. National 
Endowment for Democracy, and Michael McFaul, a Stanford professor who 
worked in Moscow for the Carnegie Endowment, have proposed creating a 
Russian democracy foundation in Starovoitova's name.
  This Starovoitova foundation would be a non-governmental, non-
partisan, strictly Russian but internationally funded center for the 
study and promotion of democratic practices. Its work would involve 
public education in a country where democracy increasingly is equated 
with crime, insider privatization, and mass poverty. The Starovoitova 
foundation could also train democratic activists for governmental and 
non-governmental service. Moreover, it might serve, in Professor 
McFaul's words, as a ``kind of Russian Civil Liberties Union,'' helping 
citizens defend their constitutional rights.
  I have reason to believe that the Starovoitova foundation would find 
broad support within Russia and be able to attract funding from several 
other democratic countries around the world.
  In a well-known phrase, Weimar Germany failed not because it had too 
many enemies, but because there were too few democrats. Weimar's tragic 
end need not be repeated in Russia. Galina

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Starovoitova's murder already has motivated record numbers of voters to 
turn out for municipal elections in St. Petersburg with strong support 
for the democratic parties. The Starovoitova Foundation for Democracy 
could maintain this momentum, even as it memorializes a courageous 
politician.
  The planning grant I am proposing would authorize the United States 
Government to engage an organization specializing in the study of 
Russia to investigate the depth and breadth of support for such an 
institution and, if there is the requisite support, the best way to 
proceed with organizing the foundation.
  Mr. President, the Russian Democratization Assistance Act of 1999 is 
a targeted response to assist the Russian Federation as it struggles to 
move away from the legacy of seven decades of communist tyranny and 
misrule. It recognizes that Russia's problems are too large and too 
complex to be amenable to instant solutions. But by significantly 
expanding educational and professional exchanges with Russia, and by 
taking the first steps toward the creation of a foundation for 
democracy there, this legislation can make an important long-term 
contribution to democracy and stability.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                 S. 372

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

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Russian Democratization 
     Assistance Act of 1999''.

     SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

       Congress makes the following findings:
       (1) The Russian Federation, which is currently undergoing 
     severe political and economic crises, continues to possess 
     thousands of nuclear warheads and the means to deliver them.
       (2) Maintaining stability in Russia is a vital national 
     security concern of the United States.
       (3) Since the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of 
     1991, the Russian Federation has made significant progress in 
     democratizing its government and society.
       (4) The continued development of democratic institutions 
     and practice will foster stability in the Russian Federation.
       (5) Educational and professional exchanges with the Russian 
     Federation have proven to be an effective mechanism for 
     enhancing democratization in that country.

     SEC. 3. POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES.

       It shall be the policy of the United States toward the 
     Russian Federation--
       (1) to promote and strengthen democratic government and 
     civil society;
       (2) to expand already existing educational and professional 
     exchanges toward those ends; and
       (3) to consider the feasibility of a Russia-based, 
     internationally funded Foundation for Democracy to further 
     democratic government and civil society.

     SEC. 4. ALLOCATION OF FUNDS FOR INTERNATIONAL INFORMATIONAL 
                   AND EDUCATIONAL EXCHANGES WITH THE RUSSIAN 
                   FEDERATION.

       Of the amount authorized to be appropriated to carry out 
     chapter 11 of part I of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 
     (22 U.S.C. 2295 et seq.; relating to support for the 
     independent states of the former Soviet Union) for each of 
     the fiscal years 2000 and 2001, the following amounts are 
     authorized to be available for the following programs with 
     the Russian Federation:
       (1) For the ``Future Leaders Exchange'', $4,000,000.
       (2) For the ``Freedom Support Act Undergraduate Program'', 
     $3,000,000.
       (3) For the ``Community Connections Program'', $15,000,000.
       (4) For the ``Freedom Support Act Fellowships in 
     Contemporary Issues'', $1,000,000.

     SEC. 5. STUDY FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF RUSSIAN DEMOCRACY 
                   FOUNDATION.

       (a) In General.--The President is authorized to conduct a 
     study of the feasibility of establishing a foundation for the 
     promotion of democratic institutions in the Russian 
     Federation.
       (b) Foundation Title.--It is the sense of Congress that any 
     foundation established pursuant to subsection (a) should be 
     known as the Starovoitova Foundation for Russian Democracy, 
     in honor of Galina Starovoitova, a former member of the State 
     Duma and Russia's leading female politician who was 
     assassinated in St. Petersburg in November 1998.
       (c) Allocation of Funds.--Of the amount authorized to be 
     appropriated to carry out chapter 11 of part I of the Foreign 
     Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2295 et seq.; relating to 
     support for the independent states of the former Soviet 
     Union) for fiscal year 2000, $50,000 is authorized to be 
     available to carry out this section.

     SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS FOR MUSKIE 
                   FELLOWSHIPS WITH THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION.

       (a) In General.--There is authorized to be appropriated to 
     the President $7,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 2000 
     and 2001 to carry out the Edmund S. Muskie Fellowship Program 
     under section 227 of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, 
     Fiscal Years 1992 and 1993 (22 U.S.C. 2452 note) with the 
     Russian Federation.
       (b) Availability of Funds.--Amounts appropriated pursuant 
     to subsection (a) are authorized to remain available until 
     expended.
                                 ______