Washington, DC – Representative Gregory W. Meeks, Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, today sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio demanding answers on why the State Department decided not to accept a new cohort of Fellows from the Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship, Charles B. Rangel International Affairs Program, and Foreign Affairs Information Technology Fellowship (FAIT), despite statutory requirements and commitments by Secretary Rubio and other senior State Department officials.  

A PDF of the full letter can be found here.  

“Alarmingly, the Department has, to date, failed to resume accepting new cohorts of Fellows and has failed to provide the necessary guidance for future fellowship awards. This means that there will not be an incoming cohort entering school this fall, for at least the Pickering, Rangel, and FAIT fellowship programs. This disruption is deeply problematic considering the bipartisan and bicameral support expressed by Congress for such fellowships less than a year ago, including through the passage of key provisions in the Fiscal Year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act... 
 
“On multiple occasions, both in public hearings and private meetings, senior State Department officials have pledged that the Department remains committed to following the law and placing incoming fellowship classes into the Department pipeline and into academic programs... We understand that Secretary Rubio has personally communicated to employees that these fellowship programs are important to attract top talent to the Department and that nothing in his Department reorganization runs contrary to such programs continuing.”