Comment on FR Doc # 2026-13248

As a professional historian and university professor I must protest at the cultural damage that would be done through the cancellation of the Fulbright-Hays program. Fulbrights have for decades been responsible for funding students in many fields in their advanced research, as well as providing important opportunities for cultural exchange between the US and countries across the world. I would not have been able to conduct my doctoral research in archives in the Netherlands if I had not received a Fulbright in 1986 to allow me to continue a heavily archival research program on eighteenth-century cultural history. This made possible what ultimately became a published book which launched my career teaching undergraduates and training graduate students. In my cohort of Fulbrighters that year was also someone who became one of the leading museum curators of Dutch painting, including at the National Gallery in Washington. As funding for advanced research at the PhD level dries up, it is vital to maintain these long-established and highly successful programs to educate future generations in the fields needed to keep our population educated and living culturally vibrant lives. The Fulbright program also functions as a vital tool of US goodwill and diplomacy, as each Fulbrighter makes and usually maintains important connections in the countries they visit. Cancelling these programs would be a major step in the decline of US education and ambition to be leaders in the world of learning.