On June 27, 2025, the Fulbright Association’s Board of Directors submitted formal testimony to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs. In response to the President’s proposed elimination of funding for the Fulbright Program in Fiscal Year 2026, our testimony strongly advocates for the restoration of full funding at $288 million. This submission outlines the unparalleled global impact, cost-efficiency, and long-standing diplomatic value of the Fulbright Program. Below is the full text of our testimony, underscoring why continued investment in international academic exchange is essential to U.S. leadership, diplomacy, and security.
Senate Committee on Appropriations
Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs
Submitted by the Board of Directors, Fulbright Association
Testimony on Fiscal Year 2026
Supporting Funding for the Fulbright Program as Line Item in the U.S. Department of State Educational and Cultural Exchange Programs
June 27, 2025
As the Board of Directors of the Fulbright Association, we appreciate the opportunity to submit testimony in support of $288 million in funding for FY 2026 for the Fulbright Program, administered by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA).
The Fulbright Association is a U.S.-based non-profit membership organization that was established in 1977 to provide Fulbright alumni with a forum to continue to advance the program. It is the oldest national Fulbright alumni organization in the world, with a central office in Washington, D.C. and 54 chapters in 38 states. It also cultivates relationships with institutions and organizations involved in the administration and advancement of the Fulbright Program abroad, including binational Fulbright commissions or other national Fulbright alumni organizations.
The President’s FY 2026 request for ECA’s funding proposes a 93% cut to the Bureau’s budget and eliminates funding for the Fulbright Program entirely. We would like to respectfully press the Subcommittee to reject that request and instead fully fund the Fulbright Program at its FY 2025 level of $288 million. The requested appropriation will allow the Department of State to maintain its world-renowned, flagship academic exchange program. Approximately two-thirds of the program’s annual 8,000 awards are jointly managed and co-funded by 49 countries with Fulbright commissions and approximately one-third are unilaterally managed by U.S. embassies in more than 110 additional countries.
The Fulbright Association works closely with the Alliance for International Exchange and concurs fully with its analysis of how academic exchanges make America safer, stronger, and more prosperous. Therefore, we will not take the Subcommittee’s time to reiterate those arguments here but wish to note that among the distinguished 400,000 plus alumni of the program, Fulbrighters account for more than 40 current and former heads of state, 62 Nobel Laureates, and 89 Pulitzer Prize winners.
We also wish to emphasize the unique organizational structure of the Fulbright Program based on executive agreements with other countries and to illustrate why it is the most cost-effective program that the State Department has in its repertoire of exchange programs.
- The Fulbright Program is one of the oldest, most effective, and universally admired public diplomacy tools of the United States. The longest-standing friends and the most important allies and trade partners of the United States – large and small – have Fulbright commissions. The program’s global reputation is venerable; 38 of the 49 countries with active Fulbright commissions today date back to the foundational years of the program between 1947 and 1961. Fifteen countries have celebrated their 75th anniversary of Fulbright exchanges with the United States in the past few years.
- Between the passage of the Fulbright Act in 1946 and the passage of the Fulbright-Hays Act in 1961, the Fulbright Program initially was limited to some 40 countries that concluded unique executive agreements with countries interested in participating in the program. These agreements enabled the establishment of Fulbright commissions governed by binational boards with an equal number of U.S. and foreign board members, and they institutionalized the practice of joint policy and decision-making.
- The Fulbright-Hays Act of 1961 then expanded the scope of the program by allowing U.S. embassies abroad to sponsor grantees in countries without Fulbright commissions, and it invited foreign governments and actors from the private sector (especially in countries with Fulbright commissions) to contribute financially to bilateral exchanges to the best of their abilities, thus institutionalizing cost-sharing that has provided the foundation for the program’s stability and growth.
- As a result, foreign public and private contributions to the program increased from zero in 1961 to over $100 million annually in 2010, and it more than quadrupled from $26 million in 1993 to $107.4 million in 2010. Today, over 35 countries contribute more to the program annually – in some cases in multiples – than the United States. According to official reports, the 13-year average foreign private and public contributions for the Fulbright Program from FY 2010-22 is $102.3 million, and a considerable amount of this funding benefits U.S. grantees.
- A recent example of the impact of foreign funding on the Fulbright Program is the dynamic growth of the U.S. English Language Teaching Assistant Program (ETA) to over 1,200 grants worldwide since 9/11. This growth in opportunities for U.S. citizens is based on the fact that host countries cover the substantial on-site costs for U.S. ETAs in the form of grants and/or salaries.
- The Fulbright Program also has a long tradition of soliciting support for its incoming international grantees from American colleges and universities, foundations, and civil society. The 13-year average of the cumulative contributions from the U.S. private sector for the program from FY 2010-22 is $47.6 million.
- Therefore, the total average foreign public and private contributions of $102.3 million and U.S. private contributions of $47.6 million to the program for the past 13 years has been $149.9 million, with the average annual U.S. government allocation for the program for the same time period being $248.8 million.
- In other words, every U.S. dollar invested in the Fulbright Program leverages an additional 60 cents in funding.
- The institutionalization of joint decision-making and joint funding make the Fulbright Program a unique tool in countries with Fulbright commissions characterized by a strong sense of co-ownership. Between 1948 and 2019 – the last year for which cumulative numbers are available – countries with Fulbright commissions accounted for almost 80% of the program’s 403,700 participants: (In 100+ other countries without Fulbright agreements or commissions, Fulbright grants are managed and funded unilaterally by U.S. diplomatic missions, which make the programs substantially smaller and considerably more expensive to operate for the U.S. government.)
Thank you again for the opportunity to express our support for funding of $288 million in Fiscal Year 2026 for the Fulbright Program. It is extremely important that this Subcommittee push back forcefully against the President’s inadequate budget request for ECA in FY 2026 and instead continue bipartisan support for the program at current funding levels. We look forward to working with the Subcommittee to ensure that the Fulbright Program continues to play a vital role in making the United States safer, stronger, and more prosperous.
Thank you for your consideration.