1. United States
2. Ala.
3. Letter

I am writing to request that you use your congressional authority to 1) demand that the U.S. State Department release the federal funds it is withholding from all Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs grantees and 2) protect the programs of the Department of Education's Office of International and Foreign Language Education as they are now completely without staff. In addition, the Institute of International Education reports that, effective March 14, IIE team members who work on ECA-funded programs such as Fulbright, Humphrey, Gilman, and others were furloughed due to Executive Orders, program suspensions and payment delays. Halting inbound and outbound exchanges and disrupting IIE and EducationUSA student-advising resources directly damages U.S. economic and national security and creates a vacuum that could easily be filled by competing nations. These failures are directly affecting people in your district. These are federal programs that Congress has authorized and appropriated funds for—for over two decades in the case of Gilman and seven decades in the case of Fulbright. Insisting that these funds be restored and these programs maintained is part of the important role Congress plays in securing the future global competitiveness and safety of our country.