House Approves FY27 State Department Spending Bill, Votes Down amendment to Eliminate the Fulbright Program

Last week, the House of Representatives voted, along largely party lines, to approve the FY27 National Security-State Appropriations bill, which provides funding for all State Department programs. Overall, the Department of State would receive $13.5 billion under this House bill, which represents a $782 million increase over last year’s enacted level and a more than $1 billion increase over the President’s budget request. However, the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Exchange, which supports multiple international exchange and scholarship programs, sustained a $20 million cut, leaving it with $647 million. While this is far better than the $451 million cut to the Bureau proposed by the President in his FY27 budget, it is far short of the $74 million funding restoration that JNCL-NCLIS has sought. The Senate Appropriations Committee has yet to release its version of this bill.

During the floor debate, Rep. Boebert (R-CO) introduced an amendment that would have eliminated all $287 million that this bill provided to the Fulbright Program. Working with our allies at the Alliance for International Exchange, JNCL-NCLIS helped whip up opposition to the amendment, which failed on a strong vote of 348 nays to 70 yeas, with all Democrats and nearly two-thirds of Republicans opposing it.

Floor debate on the amendment yielded widely divergent views on the value of international exchange programs. In support of her amendment, Boebert stated: “The president's FY27 budget proposed an 80% cut to the Fulbright program and for good reason. For years, the Fulbright program acted as a taxpayer-funded handout for trans fanatics, Green New Deal activists, and agents of foreign powers seeking to undermine the United States of America. While the president confronted Fulbright's board of directors about this injustice of their leftist bias, they resigned rather than face the truth. Every year nearly 5,000 foreign applicants receive a Fulbright scholarship. These recipients include citizens of countries with very close ties to adversaries such as Russia, China, and North Korea. A known pathway for agents of foreign powers to enter the United States and spy on us. This an unacceptable risk to the American people and our national security. The Fulbright program is a bad deal for American people and my amendment restores fiscal responsibility and keeps our great nation safe.” 

A bipartisan duo of legislators from Florida – Reps. Frankel (D) and Diaz-Balart (R), rose in opposition to the Boebert Amendment. Frankel said of Fulbright that it is “one of the most well established and prestigious exchange programs in the world…Each year the best and the brightest globally compete for spots to study in the United States or have American students experience and do research overseas. And the proof is in the results. Fulbright alumni include 44 heads of state, 63 Nobel Prize winners, 94 Pulitzer Prize winners, 83 MacArthur fellows, and numerous national leaders. Each of these individuals and 450,000 more have had a life changing experience being exposed to the United States culture and values affecting their impressions of our country for the rest of their lives. This is a smart investment.” Diaz-Balart noted in his remarks that the “Fulbright program is the crown jewel of exchange programs and it allows the US to develop key relationships with senior leaders in national security, technology, business, entrepreneurship and also it strengthens US relationships in fields that advance US interests. In a recent official trip to South America, I heard directly from our ambassadors, President Trump's ambassadors, about how the Fulbright program is a valuable tool to combat Confucius centers from communist China and other CCP malign influence efforts in this hemisphere… It's an important facilitator to our national security goals.”

Beyond Fulbright, the State Department’s FY27 appropriations bill contains funding for an array of other programs, including the Congress-Bundestag Exchange Program, the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program, the Critical Language Scholarship Program and the National Security Language Initiative for Youth. The House’s bill and accompanying Legislative Report include some detail on how much funding a few of these programs will receive but not all of them. For instance, the bill states that Fulbright would receive $287.8 million in FY27, which almost completely restores last year’s $15 million cut. The Legislative Report indicates that Gilman would receive $16.15 million. It is silent on the others.

With the House now out for its summer recess, progress on completing work on FY27 appropriations bills has essentially stopped. Aside from the National Security-State bill, the House has passed only two other FY27 appropriations bills, leaving nine still unapproved. That record is far better than the Senate’s, whose record shows zero of twelve FY27 appropriations bills completed. 

Instead of moving appropriations bills in regular order to meet the September 30th end of fiscal year deadline, Congress is preparing to punt final negotiations and decisions on spending until after the November mid-term elections. Before departing for its recess, the House passed a Continuing Resolution (CR), which would fund all programs at FY26 funding levels between October 1 and December 4, 2026. The Senate is expected to pass its version of this same bill  before it leaves for its recess. Because the House and Senate versions may not be identical, final passage may not occur until late this summer. If this CR is passed and signed into law, any government shutdown would be prevented for the duration of its operation.