[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 134 (Wednesday, September 25, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S11289]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              LORET RUPPE

  Mr. COVERDELL. Mr. President, today the Senate Foreign Relations 
Committee reported House Joint Resolution 158, a joint resolution 
commending the Peace Corps and its volunteers for their 35 years of 
service to America and the world. I was especially pleased that my 
colleagues on the committee agreed to an amendment to this resolution 
offered by Senator Dodd and myself which honors the memory of Loret 
Ruppe, the longest serving director of the Peace Corps. When I became 
director of the Peace Corps in 1989, I had the privilege of inheriting 
a corps that had been revitalized by Loret Ruppe's great leadership, 
vision, and dedication. Under her direction the Peace Corps began or 
revived programs in Sri Lanka, Haiti, Burundi, Guinea-Bissau, Chad, 
Equatorial Guinea, and the Cape Verde Islands and she energized a new 
generation to take up the challenge of serving in the corps. Her great 
accomplishments and belief in the Peace Corps won the respect of 
volunteers and built bipartisan support for the Peace Corps' mission of 
peace through development. I feel that it is especially appropriate 
that the Members of this great legislative body, so many of whom on 
both sides of the aisle count themselves as admirers of this great 
woman, pass this resolution to stand as a testament to her great 
service to America and to the millions of the world's citizens touched 
by her efforts.

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