The draft FY2018 appropriations bill of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (Labor-H) would eliminate the Fulbright-Hays program in the Department of Education. Currently funded at $7 million, the Fulbright-Hays Program – a Fulbright Program funded by a Congressional appropriation to the U.S. Department of Education – awards grants to individual U.S. K-14 pre-teachers, teachers and administrators, pre-doctoral students and postdoctoral faculty, as well as to U.S. institutions and organizations. Funding supports research and training efforts overseas, which focus on non-Western foreign languages and area studies.
The full appropriations committee will mark up the subcommittee draft tomorrow, at which point Representative David Price (D-NC-4) will offer an amendment to restore full funding to Fulbright-Hays. In the meantime, we need advocates to write their Members of Congress to request full funding for the program.
The National Humanities Alliance has put together an action alert for Fulbright-Hays.
TAKE ACTION
Please take a minute to write to your Members of Congress to voice opposition to the elimination of Fulbright-Hays.
This request is for URGENT action. The House Appropriations Committee will mark up the Labor-H subcommittee draft tomorrow, July 19.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If your Member of Congress is on the House Appropriations Committee, please contact Maria Pulcini for specific information on how to advocate for Fulbright-Hays with that office. Your voice is especially important at this stage in the appropriations process.
Additional tips:
- Consider calling your Representative’s Washington DC office. Identify yourself as a constituent, state your concern, and make your request. Find out who your Representative is by entering your zip code in the top-right corner of www.house.gov. This will also give you the phone number of their DC office.
- Contact your Representative through the contact form on their website. Most Representatives’ websites will follow the format of “www(dot)[MemberLastName](dot)house(dot)gov. Ex: Rep. Jared Polis’ website is www.polis.house.gov. OR repeat the steps in tip 1 and you’ll find the website.
- Facebook or Tweet at your Representative. Nearly all 435 Members of Congress are on Twitter. Find their Twitter handle on a search engine, or by accessing their website as outlined above and locating the Twitter icon. NOTE: Facebook now allows you to contact your legislators directly through its Town Hall feature! It is fast, easy, and effective. Here’s how to use it.
- Share this alert with your network of fellow language advocates!
