Article: Fulbright Keeps Moving Forward Despite Budget Uncertainty

From http://chronicle.com/article/Fulbright-Presses-Forward-/129499/?sid=gn&utm_source=gn&utm_medium=en

Fulbright Keeps Moving Forward Despite Budget Uncertainty
by Ian Wilhelm
October 23, 2011

As lawmakers seek to make deep cuts in federal spending, the U.S. State Department's Fulbright Program—the nation's flagship academic exchange—faces an uncertain future.

Members of Congress have yet to set the 2012 fiscal-year budget, and proposals vary on how much the department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, which oversees Fulbright, will receive. The Senate has approved a 2.2-percent increase in the bureau's 2011 allocation, while the House of Representatives has proposed a 10.1-percent reduction. For its budget request for 2012, the Obama administration sought an increase in spending for the bureau, but also asked for an almost $1-million decrease in Fulbright.

As the fiscal battle wears on, Marianne Craven, managing director of the bureau’s office of academic programs, says she is “cautiously positive” that Fulbright will survive relatively unscathed.

Read the full article at http://chronicle.com/article/Fulbright-Presses-Forward-/129499/?sid=gn&utm_source=gn&utm_medium=en