House Committee on Education and Labor
U.S. House of Representatives

Good morning. I want to welcome our witnesses here today and thank them for taking the time to appear before the subcommittees.  This hearing represents an important opportunity for us receive an update on the ability for international students to receive a college education in this country and to gather more information on a proposed scholarship program for undergraduate international students studying in the United States. 

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, concerns were raised about the declining trends of enrollment in the number of international students coming to study here in the United States. 

In the past, Education & Labor subcommittees have held three joint subcommittee hearings to gain more insight on the issue.  Our previous hearings were very informative and we learned a great deal about international students and their impact on the American economy and our country’s competitiveness.

We have the best higher education system in the world, due in part to bringing the best and brightest of other countries here to exchange ideas with our students.  We want to preserve this flow of information and culture while maintaining the opportunities that currently exist for our nation’s students.

International students are enormously beneficial to the competitiveness of this country and to the classroom.  There is no better way to boost worldwide appreciation for democracy and market-based economics than to invite future international leaders to see it and live it for themselves -- to give direct exposure to America and Americans.

At the same time, I am interested in learning more about the need for this type of program.  Fifteen different federal agencies already offer forty-nine different programs to encourage international students to come to our country to study. 

I am also concerned that we are starting to shift our focus away from the low-income students in our own country.  The Education and Labor Committee is in the process of wrapping up the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. In that reauthorization, one of our principle goals was to put in place policies aimed at ensuring that low-income students had access to higher education.  We have yet to fully meet that goal.  For example, the maximum appropriated Pell Grant is $4,731 right now.  I have some hesitancy about going forward with a proposal that would provide grants of up to $30,000 for international students to pursue an undergraduate education when we are not yet doing that for our own low-income students.

However, I remain interested in the views of our panel and I look forward to hearing our witness testimony here today.  Thank you all for joining us to discuss this important topic.