The man we have who handles foreign currency indicated to us last year that he did not think we could meet the $15 million limitation on salaries and expenses in the current year. He now says that, in line with what has happened so far this year, that is, the release of some additional deutsche marks being held in two accounts and the payment of some loans that had been outstanding, there will be enough currency in the Treasury accounts for us to meet the limitation this year.

Mr. ROONEY. Which limitation?

Mr. MEYER. The $15 million limitation which is in the present language for the current fiscal year.

Mr. ROONEY. Why should we not make the limitation $20 million? Mr. MEYER. Because it does not appear that that much will be available, Mr. Chairman, in the countries where we would be making expenditures. If the currency is available, according to Treasury regulations, we would have to buy it from Treasury anyway, even if there were not a limitation of any kind in here. The man who handles our foreign currency says he does not believe we will be able to purchase this amount in 1963.

Mr. ROONEY. We just tried to help you when we put this limitation in here.

Mr. MEYER. I realize that.

Mr. ROONEY. By seeing that you got so much reserved out of whatever foreign currencies there may be in the Treasury.

Mr. MEYER. I realize that. Many of the agreements that have been written on these foreign currencies earmark items for various uses, so that it appears we would have difficulty meeting the $15 million limitation in this coming year.

Mr. ROONEY. Did I understand correctly that you said there has been a change with regard to this, and that you can carry on with the $15 million limitation?

Mr. MEYER. For the current fiscal year, Mr. Chairman. We were afraid that we were not going to be able to meet it this year and might have to come up and ask you for some relief on the present language. It now appears that we can make it in the current fiscal

year.

We are very dubious of being able to meet it in 1963.

Mr. ROONEY. I think that will be all for the day, gentlemen.

TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 1962.

MUTUAL EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL EXCHANGE

ACTIVITIES

WITNESSES

PHILIP H. COOMBS, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL AFFAIRS

MAX ISENBERGH, DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL AFFAIRS

ALFRED V. BOERNER, DIRECTOR, BUREAU OF EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL AFFAIRS

DONALD COOK, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, BUREAU OF EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL AFFAIRS

Increase-decrease statement, fiscal years 1962 and 1963

1 Represents a decrease of 18 positions to provide funds to meet priority needs of other offices.

EXPLANATION OF LANGUAGE

Legislative authority

The Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961 referred to was recently enacted (Public Law 87-256) providing new program authority. The act of August 9, 1939 is Public Law 355, 76th Congress, "Cooperation with the other American Republics."

Salaries, expenses, and allowances of personnel and dependents as authorized by the Foreign Service Act 1946, as amended.

This provides authority for the transfer of funds to pay salaries, expenses, and allowances of personnel and dependents assigned to U.S. missions in carrying out the educational exchange program overseas.

Hire of passenger motor vehicles

This will permit the hire of limousines, buses, station wagons, and taxi service by contract in the meeting of distinguished leaders participating in the educational exchange program.

Representational expenses

This provides funds for representational expenses (not to exceed $30,000) in connection with the presentation of cultural attractions abroad.

Official entertainment within the United States

This provides for official entertainment in the United States (not to exceed $5,000) of a number of distinguished foreign leaders during the period of their grants while in the United States.

Service as authorized by section 15 of the act of August 2, 1946

This provides for intermittent service of experts or consultants when required in furtherance of the educational exchange program.

Advance of funds notwithstanding section 3648, Revised Statutes

This language provision is required for the payment in advance of per diem and other allowances to grantees for a period not in excess of 30 days. To remain available until expended

This authority for funds "to remain available until expended" is contained in section 105(a) of Public Law 87-256, the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961.

Proviso Unexpended balances of prior appropriation

This proviso will provide authority to incorporate under this new appropriation heading all unexpended balances of a prior no-year appropriation which has been transferred to these estimates.

GENERAL STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES

The premises underlying this budget for fiscal year 1963 are: (1) That international educational and cultural programs are an indispensable element in the relations of the United States with other countries; (2) that they should therefore play a role of importance comparable to that of our economic and military programs in our foreign affairs; (3) that they should be planned and executed so as to further the common interests of the United States and of other peoples in a direct and systematic way; and (4) that they must be improved in quality and their dimensions significantly enlarged in order to respond effectively to the requirements arising from the rapid and far-reaching changes taking place around the world.

In preparing this budget we have drawn for guidance upon the views of highly qualified persons in and outside Government, the recommendations of field personnel, and the results of past years of experience. To provide for planned advances deemed essential, an appropriation substantially larger than that of fiscal year 1962, but modest in terms of opportunity and need is requested.

This appropriation request includes for the first time all funding for educational and cultural exchange programs carried on directly by the Department of State. This is made possible by enactment, during the last session of Congress, Public Law 87-256 (the Fulbright-Hays Act), which places in one statute authority which was previously scattered among several. Under the FulbrightHays Act it will also be possible to give the various programs a greater flexibility and scope than in the past.

These programs are concerned with friendly and unfriendly nations alike, and with developed as well as developing countries. They deal with people. They are directed to individuals, in all variety of human, professional, social, political, and economic contexts. It is the human experience in these programs which is important. Their benefits are both immediate and long run. They provide an avenue for sustained and fruitful communication across national lines even when conventional channels of diplomatic intercourse are choked by controversy. They help create a worldwide common market of ideas, cooperative action, cultural attainment, and human discourse. Hence they contribute directly to the process of international understanding and to the development of the kind of international order within which the values of our free democratic society can survive. In a wide variety of ways they reinforce and make more productive other activities of the U.S. Government.

These programs have lagged seriously behind the rapid pace of world events in the past 10 years. They have not responded sufficiently to new and heightened American interests resulting from the emergence of many new nations in Africa and Asia, they are not meeting the challenges of the forces for change in LatinAmerica, or the worldwide competition of communism. Abundant evidence that reorientation and strengthening of our educational and cultural programs is overdue can be found in daily communications from the field, in reports on Sino-Soviet bloc activities abroad, particularly in Latin America and Africa, and in many other sources.

There exists a large and growing gap between the performance of the United States in the field of international educational and cultural activities and what we must do as a nation, if we are to meet the requirements and opportunities which our role as leader of the free world imposes upon us. This gap must be closed, and as quickly as possible. The pressures around the globe for the rapid development of human resources are too great to be ignored, except at the risk that many who look to us today for guidance and assistance in projecting a future world of peace and well-being will go down before the forces of extremism, or to our detriment turn elsewhere for aid in solving their problems.

It would be important to intensify our efforts in any event, but it is doubly important because the Communist nations have chosen to use educational and cultural activities as a weapon of persuasion and subversion in the cold war. Reliable reports show that their efforts are rising rapidly and have already outdistanced our own in key underdeveloped countries.

In this particular area of the cold war, our open society with its freedom of choice, freedom of expression, and pursuit of truth by individuals has enormous competitive advantage. We should exploit that advantage fully.

Our educational and cultural programs have achieved highly beneficial results in the past, but dollar for dollar they can achieve still more if they are made a vital ingredient in the planning of our foreign policy-on a parity of importance with economic and military programs (though far less costly). They must be tailored to the special circumstances, opportunities, and necessities of each country. They must be related closely to other activities and geared to U.S. objectives as an integral part of each country plan.

Educational and cultural programs are not a one-way street. They also have direct and appreciable advantages for our own country. They make our experts more knowledgable and strengthen our educational institutions thereby increasing our capacity as a nation to deal with problems abroad and with world affairs generally. Skill in languages and background in the political, social, economic problems of particular foreign countries swell the growing competence of our country in the conduct of foreign relations.

Comparison with the fiscal year 1962 budget as approved by Congress indicates the proposed new dimensions of the program. The total number of U.S. and foreign grantees under regular exchange of persons programs would rise from 9.268 programed for fiscal year 1962 to 12,364 proposed for fiscal year 1963. The cultural presentations program, which has remained at a fairly stable level for a number of years, would be increased by about 43 percent. Overall, the budget would rise roughly from $49.1 million in fiscal year 1962 to $65.1 million in fiscal year 1963. This increase, while representing a large step forward, is modest relative to the increased number of countries, the special challenges in Africa and Latin America, and the increased complexities of worldwide political conditions.

The exchange program always has relied heavily on the use of available foreign currencies. This dependence on foreign currencies has at times seriously dis