1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Gandhi-King Scholarly Exchange Initiative Act of 2017 . 2. Findings Congress finds the following: (1) Mohandas (Mahatma) Karamchand Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., were dedicated leaders of peace, civil rights, social justice, and social change in their respective communities and countries and in the world. (2) Mahatma Gandhi, who was born on October 2, 1869, was murdered on January 30, 1948, after dedicating his life to the peaceful empowerment of the people of India and to their liberation from British occupation. (3) Martin Luther King, Jr., who was born on January 15, 1929, was murdered on April 4, 1968, after a life dedicated to peaceful movements against segregation, discrimination, racial injustice, and poverty. (4) On August 22, 2011, the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial opened to the public in Washington, DC. This newest memorial on the National Mall pays tribute to Dr. King’s national and international contributions to world peace through nonviolent social change. (5) Mahatma Gandhi, who employed the principle of satyagraha, or nonviolent resistance, has come to represent the moral force inspiring many civil and social rights movements around the world. (6) King’s effective use of Gandhian principles was instrumental to the American civil rights movement. (7) In February 2009, a congressional delegation traveled to India to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the pilgrimage of Martin Luther King, Jr., and his wife, Coretta Scott King, to that country in 1959, and to study Gandhi’s life and work, highlighting the need for further progress in peaceful conflict resolution and combating poverty. (8) According to the 2017 Global Peace Index prepared by the Institute for Economics and Peace, the economic impact of violence on the global economy in 2016 was $14.3 trillion, which equals 12.6 percent of the world’s gross domestic product. 3. Gandhi-King Scholarly Exchange Initiative (a) Initiative established The Secretary of State is authorized to