- Thousands galvanise behind two sector-led campaigns to fight against State Department-led funding cuts that have decimated US study abroad programs.
- State Department defends the decision as it reviews the administration’s budgetary priorities.
- Stakeholders question the legality of the move, as worries remain over anticipated furloughs, organisational closures and layoffs.
Two parallel campaigns, led by the Alliance for International Exchange and NAFSA respectively, have seen over 10,500 letters sent to members of Congress across all 50 states, after it was revealed that 22 exchange programs had been targeted by the Trump administration.
“If we allow the Office for Management and Budget (OMB) to cut these congressionally appropriated FY25 awards, it will give them license to do it again and again, effectively eliminating exchange programs,” warned the Alliance, whose campaign was responsible for 8,500 letters in just four days.
“The response from the Hill has been more rapid and robust than we’ve seen so far this year,” said Mark Overmann, executive director of the Alliance, maintaining that activity was underway to “push back”.
The effort comes after the State Department’s six regional bureaus were notified last week by senior ECA leadership that certain exchange programs were “lower funding priorities in the current fiscal environment” and would be cancelled by the department.
From the internal communications, it became clear that 22 programs were due to have funding removed, though it is unknown why regional bureaus were alerted to the cuts before ECA staff, who are yet to receive any official notice of the cancelled programs, The PIE News understands.
Totalling $100 million in cuts, Overmann warned the move was “an existential crisis for these programs and possibly for ECA”.
What’s more, stakeholders have questioned the legality of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)’s actions, withdrawing FY25 funding that had already been approved by Congress.
According to the State Department, the cancellations were based on “careful review of the current fiscal environment and budget priorities”, a spokesperson told The PIE.
Every dollar we spend, every program we fund, every policy we pursue must be justified by the answer to one of three questions: Does it make America safer? Does it make America stronger? Or does it make America more prosperous?
Marco Rubio, US secretary of state
They added: “As Secretary Rubio has said, ‘Every dollar we spend, every program we fund, every policy we pursue must be justified by the answer to one of three questions: Does it make America safer? Does it make America stronger? Or does it make America more prosperous?’”
For the programs counting on the grants, the cancelled funding will likely result in furloughs, layoffs and whole organisational closures, on top of longer-term repercussions for US diplomacy, stakeholders have warned.
A former staff member of the Republican Senate Foreign Relations Committee raised particular concerns about the discontinuation of the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) Program, an exchange initiative created after 9/11 to bring young people from predominantly Muslim countries to the US.
Other impacted programs include the English Access Program and the English Language Fellow Program, the first of which has trained 200,000 youths and 7,500 teachers in over 85 countries in English language skills since its inception in 2004.
The Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders is another initiative due to be slashed, which since 2014 has hosted nearly 7,200 young leaders from every sub-Saharan African country for six-week leadership programs in the US.
