[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 35 (Thursday, March 1, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2498-S2499]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. DODD (for himself and Mr. Kennedy):
  S. 732. A bill to empower Peace Corps volunteers, and for other 
purposes; to the Committee on Foreign Relations.
  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, today, March 1, marks the 46th Anniversary 
of the Peace Corps. Never in our history has it been more critical that 
the Peace Corps succeed in its mission to ``promote world peace and 
friendship.'' As we all know, the Peace Corps seeks to advance both a 
better understanding of Americans and better understanding by 
Americans; and these goals are especially central if we want to 
effectively counter the spread of extremist ideology to disaffected 
people around the world, people who, after all, know as little of us as 
we know of them.
  Since 1961, nearly 190,000 Peace Corps volunteers have served our 
Nation as citizen diplomats. For the last 45 years, by living and 
working side-by-side with people from 139 nations, these volunteers 
have represented the very best of American ideals: working to improve 
the human condition, and overcoming barriers of culture, language and 
religion, through patience, mutual respect, and partnership.
  The Peace Corps is an absolutely crucial instrument in advancing 
America's longer term foreign policy goals. And so today I am proud to 
introduce the Peace Corps Volunteer Empowerment Act that is designed to 
make the Peace Corps even more relevant to the dynamic world of the 
21st Century. I am also very pleased to announce that another returned 
Peace Corps volunteer, Congressman Sam Farr will shortly introduce a 
companion bill in the House so that both bodies can begin working to 
pass this very important legislation.
  The bill will provide seed monies for active Peace Corps volunteers 
for demonstration projects at their specific in-country sites. It 
authorizes $10 million in additional annual appropriations to be 
distributed by the Peace Corps as grants to returned Peace Corps 
volunteers interested in undertaking ``third goal'' projects in their 
communities. The bill will also authorize active Peace Corps volunteers 
to accept, under certain carefully defined circumstances, private 
donations to support their development projects.
  For any organization to thrive, managers and leaders must have access 
to first-hand knowledge and perspectives of those working on the front 
lines. And so, this bill will establish mechanisms for more volunteer 
input into Peace Corps operations, including staffing decisions, site 
selection, language training and country programs. This bill will also 
explicitly protect certain rights of Peace Corps volunteers with 
respect to termination of service and whistleblower protection.
  We must bring the Peace Corps into the digital age. To that end, this 
bill will provide volunteers with better means of communication by 
establishing websites and email links for use by volunteers in-country.
  Inadequate funding and internal structural roadblocks have 
unfortunately resulted in an unfulfilled Presidential pledge to double 
the size of the Peace Corps by 2007. Despite a large increase in 
volunteers signing up for the Peace Corps immediately after September 
11, the Congressional Research Service reports that the number of Peace 
Corps volunteers actually declined in 2006. It is crucial that we work 
to reverse this troubling trend. That is why this bill authorizes 
active recruitment from the 185,000 returned Peace Corps volunteer 
community for second tours as volunteers and as participants in third 
goal activities in the United States.
  This bill will also remove certain medical, healthcare and other 
impediments that discourage older individuals from becoming Peace Corps 
volunteers. It will create more transparency in the medical screening 
and appeals process, and require reports on costs associated with 
extending post-service health coverage from 1 month to 6 months.
  Finally, and perhaps most crucially, my bill includes annual 
authorizations for Fiscal Years 2008 to 2011, so that we can provide 
the means by which the

[[Page S2499]]

Peace Corps can double the number of volunteers to 15,000, by 2011.
  In all the controversies of the past 5 years, all the vagaries of 
strategy and tactics and plans and counter plans, there's one policy 
that guarantees success: sending our best young men and women into the 
world to make America known. So, I encourage my colleagues to support 
this bill, to modernize, strengthen and enlarge the Peace Corps. On the 
46th Anniversary of this great program, let us act swiftly to ensure 
that at the very least, the Peace Corps will continue to thrive for an 
additional 46 years.
                                 ______