Chairman Ryan, Ranking Member Herrera-Beutler, distinguished Members of the Subcommittee.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify today on the Congressional Office for International Leadership or COIL’s fiscal year 2023 budget request. The budget request is for level funding in 2023 that will provide for continued support of staff, program costs, and operating expenses of COIL.

COIL administers the Open World program, established by you the Congress and implemented in your name. This program is the essential ingredient for successful citizen diplomacy. The participants of the Open World program have a voice that not only expresses the beauty of their countries but the cares of its citizens. Our American host families – your constituents – also have a voice that not only expresses American values (not the least of which is the uniquely American spirit of volunteerism) but also the very best of what we have: a deep appreciation of and desire for a knowledge-based democracy and a healthy civil society dedicated to the betterment of us all. In the end, because COIL is an agency of the legislative branch, the whole effort becomes the very definition of congressional diplomacy.

Now more than ever, this brand of diplomacy…

Where does this mean exactly in 2022?

To begin with, participants on our program spend two days in Washington, DC preparing for their program in any of our host communities in all 50 states by visiting congressional offices

COIL is an asset, a resource, and an investment.

COIL offers the best bang for the buck.

COIL strives to be a model agency.

As we all well know, the challenges of the pandemic in 2020 only changed in the details in 2021. And it appears that those challenges, while donning a different look, have not much abated, instead have become more complicated and more insistent on catching our attention. To that end, COIL used the best technology available to us to implement the Open World program last year and this year.