[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 42 (Monday, March 12, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E519]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   INTRODUCING THE ``SENATOR PAUL SIMON STUDY ABROAD FOUNDATION ACT''

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, March 12, 2007

  Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, today I rise in partnership with my 
distinguished Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member, Ms. Ros-
Lehtinen of Florida, to introduce a very significant piece of 
legislation, the ``Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation Act.'' 
This measure will create a new government corporation with an annual 
budget of $80 million--authorized for 10 years--to dramatically 
increase the number of non-traditional U.S. students studying abroad in 
non-traditional destinations.
  This bill will a provide significant long-term boost to our effort to 
prevail in the global war against terrorism. It will do so by 
dramatically increasing foreign understanding of the enduring strength 
and value of America's democratic culture by exposing foreign students 
and their families to one million of our best and most authentic 
diplomats, our American students. It will also vastly increase the 
talent pool of young Americans with foreign cultural experience and 
language knowledge to support our foreign affairs agencies, U.S. global 
NGOs and U.S. global corporations.
  The bill responds to a landmark Congressionally commissioned November 
2005 study entitled, ``Global Competence and National Needs'', authored 
by the Commission on the Abraham Lincoln Study Abroad Fellowship 
Program, which proposed ``. . . a broad vision for the U.S.: send one 
million students to study abroad within a decade.'' The idea behind 
this vision, as articulated in the study, was that ``making study 
abroad the norm and not the exception can position this and other 
future generations for success in the world much as the establishment 
of the land-grant university system and enactment of the GI Bill helped 
create the `American Century' .'' The Lincoln Commission which was 
headed up by former AID Administrator Mr. Peter McPherson and included 
my colleagues, Ms. Slaughter from New York and Mr. Kirk from Illinois, 
was established by Congress in 2004 at the urging of Senator Paul Simon 
who tirelessly advocated for this agenda.
  Madam Speaker, I believe this is an incredibly important legislative 
initiative. If enacted it will democratize study abroad in the way that 
the GI bill democratized higher education. Today, many American college 
students still face financial and institutional impediments to study 
abroad. The Senator Paul Simon Act and the Foundation it creates will 
tear down these barriers and make foreign study a normal rather than an 
exceptional part of an American college education.
  Today our Nation faces a deficit of cultural knowledge that is a 
clear impediment to our effort to prevail in the global war on 
terrorism and to keep America competitive in a global economy. Our 
foreign affairs agencies are struggling mightily to find recruits who 
have firsthand understanding of critical cultures and languages such as 
Arabic, Chinese, Pashto, and Dari. The Senator Paul Simon Act will 
rectify this by vastly expanding the talent pool of young Americans 
with global skills.
  I urge my colleagues to join this important effort by supporting this 
legislation.

                          ____________________