Barbara Lee Supports State Department Authorization
For Immediate Release
May 20, 2009
Contact: Nicole Y. Williams
(202) 225-2661
Washington, D.C. – Today, Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) released this statement following the House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing on the authorization appropriations for the Department of State and the Peace Corps for fiscal years 2010 and 2011 (H.R. 2410).
Congresswoman Lee was able to have a number of provisions included in the legislation including her bill, the Shirley A. Chisholm United States-Caribbean Educational Exchange Act which passed the House in the 110th Congress. The legislation seeks to promote better understanding of U.S. values and culture by offering scholarships to Caribbean students to pursue secondary, undergraduate, graduate, or post-graduate studies in the United States.
Additionally the legislation includes report language offered by Congresswoman Lee to address the enduring humanitarian crisis in Gaza and contracting and hiring provisions to ensure the State Department, in its composition and activities, accurately reflects the diversity of the United States.
“I am greatly encouraged that H.R. 2410 takes an important step toward reorienting our foreign policy priorities for the 21st Century by authorizing funding to meet President Obama’s budget request,” said Congresswoman Barbara Lee. “The legislation includes many valuable programs and provisions to extend the arm of diplomacy in the interest of development, progress, and peace.”