This past Thursday I attended an annual event of the International Center of the Capital Region that honors people in the community who have taken time out of their busy schedules to meet with delegations brought to the US through the State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program. It was a wonderful gathering that included federal, state and local political leaders – as well as a broad cross-section of the community(from government, business, academia and non-profits). New York State Senator Neil Breslin, who has met with countless delegations over the years, said a few words about the area’s global connections and a leader of the Mohawk nation gave a perspective on globalization and reconciliation that was stirring. Also in attendance was a delegation from the Parliament of Ghana – they were spending the week in Albany as part of a USAID-supported legislative strengthening visit, coordinated by the SUNY Center for International Development(one member of the delegation, now an MP, was a member of an IVLP program in the 1990s). The keynote speaker was Alma Candelaria, the State Department’s Director of the Office of International Visitors in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Her presence was an important demontration of support from Washington for this important program. It was an evening that honored and inspired.
But the IVLP program can’t run on good feelings alone; they need continued support via the federal budget. Before Congress dispersed for its August recess, the House Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs passed its spending bill, funding State Department educational and cultural exchanges at $600 million. The Senate Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations is expected to consider its own spending bill at the end of September or in early October, and to fund exchanges at $635 million ($2 million more than the President’s request of $633 million). The House and Senate subcommittees will then head to conference to decide on a final funding level for exchanges in FY 2010. This summary of where the exchanges budget stands is from the Alliance for International Educational & Cultural Exchange, which is urging people to contact their Congressional representatives and ask them to support the exchanges budget. That’s a good idea – and it would be especially powerful to note the value of the IVLP to our communities as part of that effort. All politics is local, even international (citizen) diplomacy.