2:00 P.M. EST 
MODERATOR: All right, good afternoon, folks. Welcome to the Foreign Press Center. Today, we are very pleased to have with us the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, Karen Hughes; the President of Business for Diplomatic Action, Keith Reinhard; and the Coordinator of the State Department's Bureau of International Information Programs, Jeremy Curtin. And they are here today to discuss some new strategic initiatives and multimedia tools that they have developed to help better tell America's story around the world.
And with that, we have Under Secretary Hughes.
UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES: Well, thanks so much to Eric and thanks to each of you for being here. I am here today -- we are here to talk about several important new public diplomacy projects. This is my last week as Under Secretary. It has been a great honor and privilege to represent my country and to reach out to international audiences in a spirit of friendship and respect. But after two and a half years of commuting between Washington and Texas, I have to confess I am looking forward to living in the same city with my husband once again, and I think he is looking forward to it, too.
I am pleased to be able to close my tenure by unveiling several of the new projects that we have been working on over a period of some months. These new tools in video and print and online will help us share the American story with overseas audiences in ways that are fresh, compelling and user friendly. The first is the result of a public-private sector partnership that is so important. Because America's public diplomacy really requires the work of much more than government. It requires partnerships with our business community, with our higher education community, with our travel and tourism industry. And today's initiative was born of a shared desire to make America a more welcoming country for international students and international tourists and international business travelers -- everyone who comes to our country.
As I have returned from my own trips around the world -- I have been to, I think, almost 45 countries as Under Secretary. And as I have returned through our airports, I have found them unfortunately to be somewhat intimidating, not welcoming, and unfortunately in many cases decidedly unfriendly. And that is not the image that we want to project as a country that welcomes and relies and wants to welcome even more international visitors to our shore. And so we have worked hard to try and make the entire process from beginning to end more customer friendly.
We started by working on our visa program. We started -- we added more than 500 employees to our consular staff to try and speed up that visa process and we have done so substantially in most places in the world. Students, for example, can now get a visa in a day or two, which is a decided improvement. And we have now -- we have once again reversed the trend of decline that began after September 11th and last year, in fact, issued an all-time high 591,000 student visas, which is very important.
We launched model airport programs to encourage better signs and information for our foreign visitors. And we still have work to do, but we're making progress. I was very pleased to arrive back at Dulles Airport a few weeks ago from an international trip and I saw signs that said "Welcome to America," I saw customer service agents who were there answering questions, directing people into the proper lines. There were television monitors that were playing a wonderful new video that has been developed by Disney and donated to our government to make the entry process a more welcoming one.
Today, we are showcasing a new video, "I am America." It's a beautiful video that you'll see here in a few minutes that has been produced by our friends at Business for Diplomatic Action and GSD&M's Idea City. The video brings to life our message that the United States of America is a beautiful place made up of many diverse people who are welcoming and friendly. It will be shown in more than 200 embassies and consulates across the world, in consular waiting rooms, on our websites, at cultural events and embassy programs across the world. And the video shows both the natural beauty of our country and the friendly spirit of the American people.
This new video is a significant private sector contribution to public diplomacy. We believe, as I mentioned, it is vitally important to get more Americans and more of our business community and companies and leaders involved in projecting a positive image of our country overseas. And we want to thank Business for Diplomatic Action, GSD&M, Getty Images and the entire business community that cooperated on this project, for contributing the time and the talent to produce it and so generously donate it to our government.
The second new product that we are releasing today is a picture book that is designed to be a springboard for discussion about America and our values with children. In many parts of the world, more than half the population is under the age of 25. And so public diplomacy needs to reach out to younger audiences than we've ever reached out to before. Many of these young people get a distorted perspective about our country because of TV shows, for example, that may portray a part of life in America but do not portray the reality of the totality of life in America.
I'll never forget a conversation I had with a young man in China who had just returned from his first visit to America. And he told me he was very surprised. And I said, well, what surprised you? And he said, you know, Americans are really friendly. And I thought, wow, I'm surprised that you're surprised about that. What else surprised you? And he said, well, Americans really care about their families and a lot of Americans go to church.
And I told him, I said, well, if you take a poll and you ask Americans what's important to them, they will say in most cases, a majority will say their faith and their family and so why does that surprise you? And he said something that has haunted me ever since. He said, America is not the way it looks on television.
And I worry that we are presenting through the media that we export, through television programs, through songs and music, we're exporting things that are often are great -- appeal to young people across the world, but we also export some things that don't always show a coordinated and comprehensive picture of our country. And so we believe in public diplomacy that we need to provide a more comprehensive view.
Last summer, we launched a new program to reach a younger audience than we have ever tried to reach before, eight to 14-year-olds, with a youth enrichment program. We sponsored programs for 5,000 young people in 13 countries and the West Bank and Gaza. Each program was a little different because they were tailored to the host country. But most of them featured English language teaching, computer training, leadership training and fun arts and sports activities. And we were able to take surveys and show that they were very effective. They were popular, the young people liked them, and they resulted in a more positive view and comprehensive view and knowledge about America. Some of the programs were taught by Peace Corps volunteers.
And for many of the young people who participated, it was the first time in their lives that they had ever met an American. The last two years, we have taught English. We believe English teaching is a very valuable tool. And the last two years, we have taught English to more than 20,000 young people in almost 50 countries with significant Muslim populations around the world. And it's a skill that young people want. It's a skill that they seek. And it's a skill that opens a wider window of knowledge to them, and so it opens up opportunities for their lives as well as offering an opportunity to put them in contact with Americans and to learn more about our country.
And so we designed these books for the younger audience. We think they are great springboards for discussion, as I mentioned, great teaching tools for anyone from a young embassy officer who wanted to go visit schools in their country to reach out. We plan to distribute them not only in these youth enrichment programs, but also at the sports clinics and embassy programs and school visits.
And finally, we will be unveiling some exciting new web initiatives that our Bureau of International Information Programs have developed. We have been greatly expanding our use of technology at the State Department. We not only have our own public diplomacy -- diplomatic blog called DipNote, but we also sent bloggers to cover the recent Middle East peace meeting in Annapolis. We are putting videos on YouTube. Our new digital outreach team engages in chat rooms in Arabic, soon to add Farsi and Urdu. And so we are very aggressively trying to employ new technologies. That's something that's sometimes hard for government to keep up with the innovation. But we have worked very hard to transform our international information programs bureau to do just that.
First, we want to show you the video that Business for Diplomatic Action has so generously produced for us, called "I am America," and to do that, I would like to introduce Keith Reinhard, who is the president of Business for Diplomatic Action. He is chairman emeritus of DDB, the largest global advertising agency, with 206 offices in 96 countries. Advertising Age has referred to Keith as the industry's soft-spoken visionary.
And I am very grateful that he had the vision to create Business for Diplomatic Action. They have been a wonderful partner to us at the State Department. And we very much appreciate, Keith, your work on this video and your generous contribution. Thank you.
MR. REINHARD: Thank you, Karen. Under Secretary Hughes has really positioned this very well and I won't have too much to add, a word or two. While she and her colleagues at State Department have been working very hard to improve and speed up the visa process, and she gave you some dimension of that, especially for the people who really want to visit us, and as she and her colleagues at Homeland Security have done some model programs to make the entry process more welcoming.
She reached out to us and asked if we could create a short video showing a positive face of America for use in the waiting rooms of U.S. embassies and consulates around the world, and we happily agreed. The assignment fits so perfectly into the five-part star strategy of Business for Diplomatic Action, which I know you've all been to our website, you've memorized it, you have your brochures in front of you. And you know that the A in the middle of the star strategy stands for accentuate and amplify those positives about our country that people still admire. And of course, one of those positives being the warmth and diversity of the American people themselves.
And so we quickly said, yes, to the Under Secretary's request. And then I reached out to my friend, Roy Spence, whose Austin, Texas, based agency is called GSD&M Idea City. And Roy and his group had done the very moving public service announcement you may have seen just after 9/11 that was broadly aired within the United States to help bring our country together at that time.
The idea presented to us by the creative team -- Mike Blair, the creative director, is sitting quietly in the back row today -- their idea was to show breathtaking images of America's geographic landmarks and to integrate into these scenes original footage of Americans of all colors, races and creeds presenting the real and the positive face of America.
And I'm not sure whether you're exactly like many of the travelers to our country that I've talked to in the past. But they say two things. One was what the Under Secretary mentioned -- I couldn't believe how friendly the American people were. We had seven young Arab executives in the United States for a month just last month, and when I asked them at their closing reception in Washington, what was the most surprising thing? Once again, they said, the American people, they were so friendly and so genuine.
The other thing people remember and are sometimes surprised by are the geographic landmarks, the spectacular scenery we have in this country. And sometimes our television and motion picture presentations do not really emphasize that. And so what GSD&M and their team did, they presented both -- I'm very sorry about that. If that was one of you calling, I'll return the call as soon as this is finished.
They presented these spectacular graphic images and integrated original footage of Americans saying that they, in truth, define America. The only words in the entire four and a half minute piece are the words spoken by American citizens who are defining themselves as America, in answer to one gentleman who asked the question, "Who is America?" And then as we go through the breathtaking vistas, contributed by Getty Images of Seattle, we end with a genuine American and a genuine welcome to America.
That's it. We are happy to have done this, and we are anxious to have it played in all 200-some embassies and consulates of the United States around the world. So we can roll the video and then Karen will be back.
(Video played.)
UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES: Thank you. Every time I want to see that, I want to see it again. So I think that's the best advertisement.
I'm sorry? That's a good sign, that's right.
Well, we very, very much appreciate this. And as you can imagine, put yourself in a consular waiting room, waiting in a long line in some country, you know, you're maybe a little nervous and kind of worried, and you see something like that and I think it's very uplifting and it's a wonderful part of the introductory experience. And, of course, our embassies will also be able to play it at every program they do and it's a wonderful introduction to our country.
So we're very excited and we very much, again, appreciate GSD&M and your contribution, and Business for Diplomatic Action. Thank you so much.
Now, I'd like to quickly introduce you to Jeremy Curtin, who is one of our most senior Foreign Service officers. He actually has the Foreign Service's highest rank of career minister. And in his 32-year career, Jeremy has seen a lot of public diplomacy, so he would be a good resource to ask about the history of our public diplomacy efforts.
He is currently -- he has served around the world and is currently the coordinator of our Bureau of International Information Programs, which has been at the forefront of transforming our efforts into high technology and moving in to using new technologies. And about six months ago, I challenged Jeremy and his team and all of our people to come up with some innovative new ways to use next year's presidential election to help share the story of democracy and freedom and our values with the rest of the world, and that's one of the programs that Jeremy is going to talk a little bit about here today.
Thank you. Jeremy.
MR. CURTIN: I'm a little hesitant to stand up here and talk about a booklet after seeing this wonderful video, but I'll do it anyway.
Under Secretary Hughes mentioned America Is. And as we try to create a more welcoming image to people coming to this country, to the United States, we also try to reach out to people who aren't coming here, especially young people. For the Department of State, this is actually quite a new venture. We have tended to deal with the elites in different countries, educated people, older people. And America Is is a pamphlet that Under Secretary Hughes asked us to develop which tells in very simple language and pictures, particularly pictures, about the values of the United States, the values and principles which underlie who we are as a people and explain indirectly a lot of our policies and actions and who we are as a nation.
This booklet will now be circulated around the world through our embassies and consulates as the Under Secretary said. There are some copies of it out in the lobby and I hope you'll have a chance to look at it. It's aimed at elementary school students who are studying English, so eight-year-olds, eight to 12-year-olds. But I think it's interesting to anybody who is interested in international affairs and how to reach people in other countries. We are very proud of this.
As part of our outreach effort, we have also been trying to move into the 21st century. Under Secretary Hughes mentioned an election program that we have launched already actually to build on the election year and the interest that people have in the election year in the United States. But that's part of an overall process to revamp the State Department's presence on the global Internet. So we have created a new site which we are calling America.gov. this is an attempt, and I think it will be successful to compete in today's global information wars.
It is very cutting edge, it will be very interactive and dynamic. What you can see now is a static site. That's the front page. It's America.gov, Telling America's Story. It will get away from what had been in the past a State Department international site which was rather static and word based. It's multi-layered so students can find something there of interest, but so can university professors, so can journalists. And it will approach information about the United States on many different levels aimed at many different audiences.
One feature that's live now that you can see if you go to America.gov is a package of information, video, web chats, static information, word-based information about the elections. It's -- I think it's a fantastic site. I'm very proud of it.
Every time we turn around, the Under Secretary says, something more, something new. What drove us to this was we did a story about humanitarian efforts in Latin America. And I thought it was a very good story, good words, good pictures. And the Under Secretary said, where's the video? So you'll see on our site now there's video. And we've come a long way, I think, and we have a long way to go, but it's really a very interesting site. It will be launched literally and completely in the middle of January.
This site itself and the elections part of it is just one part of a comprehensive effort that we are undertaking that involves exchanges, involves international visitors, it involves Foreign Press Center programs, all of which are designed to teach about America, building on the interests that people have in our political process and in the elections that are going to happen -- well, they are already happening now but will come to culmination next November.
So thank you very much. I hope you will look at America.gov and in January, I hope you will look at the whole site. So thank you.
UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES: It's very exciting for me personally to see the America.gov. When I first took this job two and a half years ago, I tried to put myself in the shoes of a couple of people. I thought, if I were an ambassador in a country somewhere representing America, what information would I need to do my job of communicating with the audience in my country? I also thought, if I were a young person that was trying to go on the Internet and learn about America, what would be the logical website? So I thought, well, it would be America.gov.
And so I went on my computer and looked up America.gov and it was a very static page that I think was owned by the General Services Administration or someone. And Jeremy's team has set about for the last couple of years getting ownership of that website and we now have it. The best $45 a year I've spent as Under Secretary is to have the America.gov website which will be fully operational in mid-January -- is that right? That's the target date. They're now updating the site. It's available in English and six other languages.
So it's a very, as you might imagine, a massive job to transform and build the new site because of all the different languages. But it will be live. And if you go on it now you'll just get that one page. But it says coming soon across the top. And the elections page is there, and you can actually access it through that.
So with that, we'll be happy to take any questions.
QUESTION: Sylviane Zehil, L'Orient le Jour. Both are newspaper -- newspapers in Beirut, Lebanon, one in French, another in Arabic.
I see here that you have the Arab Americans embracing political activism. It means you are targeting the Arab audience. And more especially, I am going to ask you about Lebanon.
I know it is very difficult to get a visa from going to the United States from Lebanon. Are you going -- does it mean that you are going to be more flexible regarding those visas going to -- for people coming from Lebanon to the United States?
UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES: Well, I'm not certain of the specific situation with visas in Lebanon. But I will say generally that we are working very hard to present a welcoming image to people. We want students to be able to come from Lebanon to America. We want business travelers and tourists and visitors from Lebanon, throughout the Arab world, and across the world, legitimate visitors, to be able to come to our country.
We have an initiative called Secure Borders, Open Doors that sums up our efforts. And it's a joint effort of Secretary Rice and Secretary Chertoff to try to make sure that our country is safe and secure for both our residents and our international visitors, and that we are also welcoming. Because I believe that a big part of our national security is for us to continue to engage with the world, to bring people here so they can get to know us, to bring students and young people from Lebanon.
I have had an opportunity to be there and visit briefly and we want more people. We need to make greater efforts both in Americans reaching out and inviting people to come to our country. And so we will work hard to do that.
QUESTION: Hello Regis Le Sommier, U.S. bureau chief of Paris Match Magazine, French magazine.
In two and a half years, you said you visited 45 countries as Under Secretary of State. Do you leave your job with the impression that the U.S. image in the world is better than when you started?
UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES: Well, you know, I have a saying on my desk that I keep to remind me of the true nature of public diplomacy. And that is, public diplomacy is really about building long-term relationships. The Chinese proverb that is on my desk talks about planting the seeds of trees under whose shade you may never sit. I believe I have planted a lot of seeds. I don't think we're seeing the shade probably yet.
There's no doubt, this is -- you know, this is an enormously complex and difficult time around the world. And there was a lot of disagreement in France, in nations across the world, with some of the decisions America has made in recent years. Public diplomacy does not have a magic wand. We can't wave a magic wand and do away with legitimate policy disagreements that people around the world may have.
On the other hand, public diplomacy is not mission impossible, either. And those are the two extremes that I think people ascribe to my job. They think it's either a magic wand or it's mission impossible, and I don't think it's either one. It's about building long-term relationships.
I'm glad you asked the question from France. Because when people ask me about the polls, I like to tell the story that in 1985. So what's that -- 22 years ago, a young person from France came to the United States of America for the first time ever on a public diplomacy program. His name was Nicolas Sarkozy. And he is now the President of France. And I doubt that in 1985 that showed up in a public opinion poll, the significance of that visit. But what it did was it made a lifelong friend for my country, who is now the leader of the country of France, one of our most important allies. And so public diplomacy is about those long-term people-to-people investments.
We have been about expanding the programs. When I started as Under Secretary, the previous year we had had 27,000 people worldwide participate in our public diplomacy programs. This year, we will have about 42,000 people participate, so that's significant growth. And we're working on a budget that we hope will boost it to well over 50,000 people.
Now, I will continue to advocate -- as I leave this role, I am going to continue to advocate for more funding and more programs. As you've heard here today, we are reaching out to younger audiences, we're using more technology. We need to do even more. These people-to-people programs, whether it's student exchanges or international visitor exchanges like the one that President Sarkozy participated in, whether it's English teaching classes, whether it's what I call the diplomacy of deeds which is highlighting and expanding the concrete ways that America works to improve people's lives through education and health care programs, like the breast cancer initiative that we started in the Middle East and Latin America, that delivers lifesaving information to women, while also teaching them how to network and to participate and to become fuller participants in their own societies and have an impact.
So all of that -- those programs that I just mentioned, all of them are public diplomacy programs. And I think a lot of people don't understand either the scope or the range of public diplomacy programs, which also include things like getting more of our foreign service officers engaging on the Internet through our blogging or out on television, representing our policies across the world.
QUESTION: Neeme Raud, Estonian Television. I just saw an announcement that the New York Symphony is going to North Korea. What about cultural diplomacy, is also part of the public diplomacy? And I remember in '60s, there was this famous program about U.S. jazz going to Europe and all that. So tell us a little about these initiatives?
UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES: Well, cultural diplomacy is a very important part of public diplomacy. And unfortunately, after the Cold War, during the '90s, when public diplomacy was in decline, funding for cultural diplomacy was almost zeroed out. We thought the Cold War was over, there was no need for this anymore. On a bipartisan basis, the members of congress and the previous administration, they started cutting the budget for public diplomacy. They closed American libraries across the world. They eventually closed down the old U.S. Information Agency and merged it into the State Department.
When I arrived in 2005, our outstanding career professionals who were at the State Department were still -- I think were pretty demoralized and felt that there had not been the level of funding or support for the important programming that they do. And so I have worked hard to try to reverse that and to really increase our funding. And cultural diplomacy is one of those areas.
We launched a new global cultural initiative. And we are very pleased to see that the New York Philharmonic may in fact be going to -- I haven't seen the final announcement but I saw the reports of it. I think the announcement is tomorrow. And as our Assistant Secretary Chris Hill said, we hope that we will be able to look back on that visit as a moment that helped this country open itself to the world.
And I think cultural diplomacy has proven to be a very powerful tool of diplomacy. Once people get a taste of the creativity and the freedom that is the lifeblood of the arts, it's hard to put freedom's genie back in that bottle. And so I think it's an important way that we can reach out on a human basis to people across our world.
QUESTION: Jean Louis Turlin, Le Figaro. About my country, I wanted to add to what you said about President Sarkozy, that wanted to say that President Chirac also came to participate in a similar program before going into French politics. I don't know if that makes him a better friend of America than he was later --
UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES: I wasn't aware that he had.
QUESTION: But actually, on that particular subject, yes, I mean obviously it's a very good idea to have people come here to discover America and its values. But then again, the terrorists who, you know, took down the World Trade Center, they were people who were here. Obviously, they were not converted, so I don't know how you can deal with that issue.
Then I have another question about your own experience with the Muslim world. You came into this job without, I believe, having been much exposed to it? Do you think that was a handicap? And would you recommend that your successor be perhaps more or better versed in this particular area and culture?
UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES: Well, let me answer that last part first. Obviously, the reason I was asked to take on this challenge, I think, was because of the fact that I was close to the President and could get access to the President. And when I traveled, I was viewed as representing the President. And so when I reached out to a foreign audience, I was reaching out on behalf of the President of the United States. And I think that was important.
We do have a lot of experts at the State Department who I have learned a great deal from, who I have listened to. We have people who lead our effort who are experts in the Muslim and in the Arab and the wider Muslim world and communities across the world. And I have listened to them, I have traveled with them. And so I feel like the expertise is available.
The other thing about that is that our public diplomacy programs are actually carried out by public diplomacy professionals. I'm their leader, I'm like the manager, but I'm -- they are carried out by professionals in the field. So, for example, in Lebanon, we have a wonderful ambassador there, we have public diplomacy officers there, we have foreign service nationals who are from the country who work in part of our public diplomacy. So it's not me, per se, who is necessarily the one -- I'm the leader of the organization, but the programs, while they're managed from Washington, are carried out in the field by people who have a great deal of experience.
I have been involved in recruiting the next Under Secretary. It's a very outstanding individual who is in the midst of some of the background checks and clearances. And President Bush, I hope, will be able to make an announcement soon. And it's -- public diplomacy will be very well served.
Now, your first question was about -- oh, the terrorists were in our country.
We evaluate our public diplomacy programs, and they're not 100 percent, nothing is 100 percent. But by and large, the vast majority of people who participate in our programs, we are able to document, have a much more favorable and positive opinion of the United States of America as a result of participating in our programs and that lasts over a period of years. And so I think our public diplomacy programs are very important for our country and I will continue to be an advocate for increasing and expanding them.
That doesn't mean that everyone who comes here is going to decide they like our country. By and large, most people who do end up with a much more positive view and a much more informed view about America.
QUESTION: Vladimir Kikilo with the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS. By watching Russian TV, one could come to the conclusion that anti-American sentiment in today's Russia is on the rise. Do you have anything specific in mind within the framework of public diplomacy to try to change this situation?
UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES: We have a very comprehensive public diplomacy program in Russia that includes everything from student exchanges to very ambitious outreach by our embassy there, and our ambassador Bill Burns. We also do a lot of programming with young people in Russia.
I mentioned the youth enrichment program. It was actually modeled after a program that began in Russia, where we reached out to young people in Russia with interesting sports activities and leadership training and citizenship participation. And so we have a very aggressive youth program, youth outreach program, in Russia and we have a large public diplomacy staff in Russia.
Do you have anything special that you wanted to mention, Jeremey, with your IIP programs?
MR. CURTIN: We do have a Russian language website --
UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES: Website.
MR. CURTIN: Which is intended to carry information about American society and policies to people in Russia. And not only directly but also through the embassy. The embassy uses that information for their outreach programs.
UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES: We also have a long history of cultural diplomacy with Russia. The jazz was very important on Voice of America.
I should mention we have concerns about restrictions on press and broadcasting in Russia. I know we're experiencing difficulties with our Voice of America broadcasting. And especially on television. But we have a long history of broadcasting music. And I think it was Willis Conover was the great jazz ambassador who was on Voice of America in Russia. And we continue today to do cultural diplomacy through Jazz. And I believe we had some of those programs -- within the last couple years, I believe some of them have gone to Russia. So that's an important part of our cultural diplomacy of our outreach as well.
QUESTION: Can Kamiloglu, ANKA News Agency, Turkey. There is a great opposition about the U.S. policy with the issue of PKK in Turkey. So what do you think about the Turkish people opposition? Did you work enough for this issue?
UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES: We are very concerned about the PKK issue and the ongoing terrorist attacks on the people of Turkey. We have had American officials in Turkey meeting with the government. We have talked with Iraq. I know there have been Iraqi officials in Turkey also working on that, and we want to help Turkey to confront this threat to your citizens. And we are very concerned by the loss of life that you've seen in Turkey as a result of this terrorism.
QUESTION: What kind of funding -- the funding, what kind of number you have in mind?
UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES: When I started at the State Department, I believe our funding was around $660 million. That does not include broadcasting. That includes all of our public diplomacy programming and our education and exchange programming. Today, it's about $840 million. It would be even higher if we were not still under a continuing resolution since 2006 because we have been unable to get budgets through.
But we have requested -- we are in the process of working on -- we have requested a very ambitious billion-dollar budget that is currently in process. It has not been approved yet and has not been yet submitted to Congress. But we are working on that.
We believe that the funding for these type of programs needs to be significantly expanded. Secretary Gates, the Secretary of Defense, gave a speech about that a couple of weeks ago talking about the need for America to expand its soft power and its public diplomacy programs and we absolutely agree with that.
Thank you all very much.
