[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 120 Reported in Senate (RS)]
Calendar No. 217
113th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 120
A bill to expand the number of scholarships available to Pakistani
women under the Merit and Needs-Based Scholarship Program.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
January 23 (legislative day, January 3), 2013
Mrs. Boxer (for herself, Ms. Landrieu, Mr. Coons, Mr. Menendez, and
Mrs. Shaheen) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and
referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations
October 10, 2013
Reported by Mr. Menendez, with an amendment
[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed
in italic]
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
A bill to expand the number of scholarships available to Pakistani
women under the Merit and Needs-Based Scholarship Program.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
<DELETED>SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.</DELETED>
<DELETED> This Act may be cited as the ``Malala Yousafzai
Scholarship Act'''.</DELETED>
<DELETED>SEC. 2. FINDINGS.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (a) Findings.--Congress makes the following
findings:</DELETED>
<DELETED> (1) On October 9, 2012, 15-year-old Malala
Yousafzai was shot in the head by Taliban gunmen in Pakistan on
her way home from school.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (2) When Malala was 11 years old, she bravely
stood up to the Taliban and wrote a secret blog documenting
their crackdown on women's rights and education in
2009.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (3) Malala's advocacy for women's education made
her a target of the Taliban.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (4) The Taliban called Malala's efforts to
highlight the need for women's education an
``obscenity''.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (5) According to the United Nation's 2012
Education for All Global Monitoring Report, ``Pakistan has the
second largest number of children out of school [in the
world]'' and ``nearly half of rural females have never been to
school.''.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (6) According to a Council on Foreign Relations
report titled ``What Works in Girls' Education'', ``A 100-
country study by the World Bank shows that increasing the share
of women with a secondary education by 1 percent boosts annual
per capita income growth by 0.3 percentage points.''.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (7) According to the World Bank, ``The benefits of
women's education go beyond higher productivity for 50 percent
of the population. More educated women also tend to be
healthier, participate more in the formal labor market, earn
more income, have fewer children, and provide better health
care and education to their children, all of which eventually
improve the well-being of all individuals and lift households
out of poverty. These benefits also transmit across
generations, as well as to their communities at
large.''.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (8) According to United Nation's 2012 Education
For All Global Monitoring Report, ``education can make a big
difference to women's earnings. In Pakistan, women with a high
level of literacy earned 95 percent more than women with no
literacy skills.''.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (9) In January 2010, Secretary of State Hillary
Rodham Clinton stated, ``We will open the doors of education to
all citizens, but especially to girls and women . . . We are
doing all of these things because we have seen that when women
and girls have the tools to stay healthy and the opportunity to
contribute to their families' well-being, they flourish and so
do the people around them.''.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (10) The United States provides critical foreign
assistance to Pakistan's education sector to improve access to
and the quality of basic and higher education.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (11) The Merit and Needs-Based Scholarship Program
administered by the United States Agency for International
Development awards scholarships to academically talented,
financially needy Pakistani students from remote regions of the
country to pursue bachelor's or master's degrees at
participating Pakistani universities.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (12) Twenty-five percent of the 1,807 Merit and
Needs-Based Scholarships awarded to date have been for women,
with the goal of awarding 50 percent of the scholarships for
fall 2013 matriculation to women.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (13) The United Nations declared November 10 as
``Malala Day''--a global day of support for and recognition of
Malala's bravery and courage in promoting women's
education.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (14) On December 10, 2012, the United Nations and
the Government of Pakistan launched the ``Malala Fund for
Girls' Education'' to improve girls' access to education
worldwide, with Pakistan donating the first $10,000,000 to the
Fund.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (15) The Government of Pakistan has stated that it
plans to open 16 schools for poor children in areas affected by
conflict or natural disasters and name them ``Malala Schools''
after Malala Yousafzai.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (16) The Government of Pakistan, the United
Nations, the World Bank, and other international organizations
have set an April 2013 deadline to put forward a plan to
provide education for all of Pakistan's school-aged children by
the end of 2015.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (17) More than 1,000,000 people around the world
have signed the United Nations Special Envoy for Global
Education petition calling on the Government of Pakistan to
enroll every boy and girl in primary school.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (18) Pakistani civil society organizations
collected an additional 1,200,000 signatures from Pakistanis on
a petition dedicated to Malala's cause.</DELETED>
<DELETED>SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (a) In General.--It is the sense of Congress that--
</DELETED>
<DELETED> (1) education and freedom from discrimination are
fundamental human rights; and</DELETED>
<DELETED> (2) educational exchanges increase people-to-
people ties and promote institutional linkages between the
United States and other countries.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (b) Continued Support for Educational Initiatives in
Pakistan.--Congress encourages the Department of State and the United
States Agency for International Development to continue their support
for initiatives led by the Government of Pakistan and Pakistani civil
society that promote education in Pakistan, especially education for
women.</DELETED>
<DELETED>SEC. 4. MERIT AND NEEDS-BASED SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (a) Expansion.--The USAID Administrator shall increase the
number of scholarships available under the Merit and Needs-Based
Scholarship Program (referred to in this Act as the ``Program'')
administered by the United States Agency for International Development
(referred to in this Act as ``USAID'') during each of the fiscal years
2013 through 2016 by 30 percent compared to the number of scholarships
awarded during fiscal year 2012.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (b) Limitations.--</DELETED>
<DELETED> (1) Women.--The additional scholarships available
under subsection (a) may only be awarded to women, in
accordance with other scholarship eligibility criteria already
established by USAID.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (2) Academic disciplines.--Additional scholarships
added by subsection (a) shall be awarded for a range of
disciplines to improve the employability of graduates and to
meet the needs of the scholarship recipients.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (3) Other scholarships.--The USAID Administrator
shall make every effort to award 50 percent of the scholarships
available under the Program (excluding the additional
scholarships available under subsection (a)) to Pakistani
women.</DELETED>
<DELETED>SEC. 5. ANNUAL CONGRESSIONAL BRIEFING.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (a) In General.--The USAID Administrator shall designate
appropriate USAID officials to brief the appropriate congressional
committees, not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this
Act, and annually thereafter for the next 3 years, on the
implementation of section 4.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (b) Contents.--The briefing described in subsection (a)
shall include, among other relevant information, for the most recently
concluded fiscal year--</DELETED>
<DELETED> (1) the total number of scholarships that were
awarded through the Program;</DELETED>
<DELETED> (2) the disciplines of study chosen by the
scholarship recipients;</DELETED>
<DELETED> (3) the percentage of the scholarships that were
awarded to students seeking a bachelor's degree or a master's
degree, respectively; and</DELETED>
<DELETED> (4) the percentage of scholarship recipients that
voluntarily dropped out of school or were involuntarily pushed
out of the program for failure to meet program
requirements.</DELETED>
<DELETED>SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (a) Transfer of Security Assistance Funding.--Of the
amounts appropriated for fiscal years 2013 and 2014 pursuant to the
authorization under title II of the Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan
Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-73), $400,000 shall be made available in
each of the fiscal years 2013 and 2014 for the Program.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (b) Funding for Additional Scholarships for Pakistani
Women.--Of the amounts appropriated for fiscal years 2015 and 2016 for
the purpose of providing assistance to Pakistan under the Foreign
Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151 et seq.), $400,000 shall be made
available in each of the fiscal years 2015 and 2016 for the
Program.</DELETED>
<DELETED> (c) Availability.--Amounts made available in subsections
(a) and (b) shall remain available until expended.</DELETED>
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Malala Yousafzai Scholarship Act'''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
(a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
(1) On October 9, 2012, 15-year-old Malala Yousafzai was
shot in the head by Taliban gunmen in Pakistan on her way home
from school.
(2) When Malala was 11 years old, she bravely stood up to
the Taliban and wrote a secret blog documenting their crackdown
on women's rights and education in 2009.
(3) Malala's advocacy for women's education made her a
target of the Taliban.
(4) The Taliban called Malala's efforts to highlight the
need for women's education an ``obscenity''.
(5) On July 12, 2013, Malala celebrated her 16th birthday
by delivering a speech before the United Nations General
Assembly in which she said, ``So let us wage a glorious
struggle against illiteracy, poverty, and terrorism. Let us
pick up our books and our pens. They are the most powerful
weapons. One child, one teacher, one book, and one pen can
change the world. Education is the only solution.''.
(6) According to the United Nation's 2012 Education for All
Global Monitoring Report, ``Pakistan has the second largest
number of children out of school [in the world]'' and ``nearly
half of rural females have never been to school.''.
(7) According to a Council on Foreign Relations report
titled ``What Works in Girls' Education'', ``A 100-country
study by the World Bank shows that increasing the share of
women with a secondary education by 1 percent boosts annual per
capita income growth by 0.3 percentage points.''.
(8) According to the World Bank, ``The benefits of women's
education go beyond higher productivity for 50 percent of the
population. More educated women also tend to be healthier,
participate more in the formal labor market, earn more income,
have fewer children, and provide better health care and
education to their children, all of which eventually improve
the well-being of all individuals and lift households out of
poverty. These benefits also transmit across generations, as
well as to their communities at large.''.
(9) According to United Nation's 2012 Education For All
Global Monitoring Report, ``education can make a big difference
to women's earnings. In Pakistan, women with a high level of
literacy earned 95 percent more than women with no literacy
skills.''.
(10) In January 2010, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton stated, ``We will open the doors of education to all
citizens, but especially to girls and women...We are doing all
of these things because we have seen that when women and girls
have the tools to stay healthy and the opportunity to
contribute to their families' well-being, they flourish and so
do the people around them.''.
(11) The United States provides critical foreign assistance
to Pakistan's education sector to improve access to and the
quality of basic and higher education.
(12) The Merit and Needs-Based Scholarship Program
administered by the United States Agency for International
Development awards scholarships to academically talented,
financially needy Pakistani students from remote regions of the
country to pursue bachelor's or master's degrees at
participating Pakistani universities.
(13) Fifty percent of the 974 Merit and Needs-Based
Scholarships awarded during fiscal year 2013 were awarded to
Pakistani women. Historically, only 25 percent of such
scholarships have been awarded to women.
(14) The United Nations declared July 12 as ``Malala
Day''--a global day of support for and recognition of Malala's
bravery and courage in promoting women's education.
(15) On December 10, 2012, the United Nations and the
Government of Pakistan launched the ``Malala Fund for Girls'
Education'' to improve girls' access to education worldwide,
with Pakistan donating the first $10,000,000 to the Fund.
(16) More than 1,000,000 people around the world have
signed the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education
petition calling on the Government of Pakistan to enroll every
boy and girl in primary school.
(17) Pakistani civil society organizations collected almost
2,000,000 signatures from Pakistanis on a petition dedicated to
Malala's cause of education for all.
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
(a) In General.--It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) every individual should have the opportunity to pursue
an education;
(2) every individual, regardless of gender, should have the
opportunity to pursue an education without fear of
discrimination; and
(3) educational exchanges increase people-to-people ties
and promote institutional linkages between the United States
and other countries.
(b) Continued Support for Educational Initiatives in Pakistan.--The
Senate encourages the Department of State and the United States Agency
for International Development to continue their support for initiatives
led by the Government of Pakistan and Pakistani civil society that
promote education in Pakistan, especially education for women.
SEC. 4. MERIT AND NEEDS-BASED SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM.
(a) Expansion.--Using funding made available under section 6, the
Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development
(referred to in this Act as the ``USAID Administrator'') shall increase
the number of scholarships to women under the Merit and Needs-Based
Scholarship Program (referred to in this Act as the ``Program'') during
each of the calendar years 2013 through 2015 over the level awarded to
women in calendar year 2011.
(b) Limitations.--
(1) Criteria.--The additional scholarships available under
subsection (a) may only be awarded in accordance with other
scholarship eligibility criteria already established by USAID.
(2) Academic disciplines.--Additional scholarships
authorized under subsection (a) shall be awarded for a range of
disciplines to improve the employability of graduates and to
meet the needs of the scholarship recipients.
(3) Other scholarships.--The USAID Administrator shall make
every effort to award 50 percent of the scholarships available
under the Program to Pakistani women.
SEC. 5. ANNUAL CONGRESSIONAL BRIEFING.
(a) In General.--The USAID Administrator shall designate
appropriate USAID officials to brief the appropriate congressional
committees, not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this
Act, and annually thereafter for the next 3 years, on the
implementation of section 4.
(b) Contents.--The briefing described in subsection (a) shall
include, among other relevant information, for the most recently
concluded fiscal year--
(1) the total number of scholarships that were awarded
through the Program;
(2) the disciplines of study chosen by the scholarship
recipients;
(3) the percentage of the scholarships that were awarded to
students seeking a bachelor's degree or a master's degree,
respectively; and
(4) the percentage of scholarship recipients that
voluntarily dropped out of school or were involuntarily pushed
out of the program for failure to meet program requirements.
SEC. 6. FUNDING.
Of the amounts that have been appropriated for assistance to
Pakistan under the heading ``Economic Support Fund'' pursuant to
chapter 4 of part II of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C.
2346 et seq.) and remain unobligated as of the date of the enactment of
this Act, the Secretary of State shall make available not less than
$3,000,000 for scholarships authorized under section 4(a). Amounts made
available under this section shall remain available until expended.
Calendar No. 217
113th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 120
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
A bill to expand the number of scholarships available to Pakistani
women under the Merit and Needs-Based Scholarship Program.
_______________________________________________________________________
October 10, 2013
Reported with an amendment