[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 91 (Thursday, June 23, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H4466-H4467]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         AMERICAN ANGELS ABROAD

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Poe) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, we have a group of people in the 
United States who are all volunteers that I call the American Angels 
Abroad. They are those thousands of Peace Corps volunteers throughout 
the world that are helping Third World countries in many different 
ways. They go to remote areas of the world, far from home, far from 
their families. They work in very primitive conditions. Yet there are 
those angels that are trying to help other people throughout the world, 
and they are called the Peace Corps volunteers.
  The Peace Corps started as an idea of President Kennedy back in 1960 
when he spoke to the University of Michigan and encouraged those 
students to volunteer to help America abroad. Finally, in 1961 he 
started the Peace Corps. Since then, over 200,000 Americans, mainly 
young people, mainly females, have volunteered to go around the world 
representing the United States.

[[Page H4467]]

  It is very hard work being a Peace Corps volunteer. They deal with 
issues that most Americans never deal with. Just simple basic 
necessities such as of electricity and water and matters such as that, 
they do without, or they are difficult to find in the remote areas 
where they are because they are helping other people that don't have 
those things we have in the United States. Generally, they work alone 
when they are in foreign countries.
  But all is not well with the Peace Corps, Mr. Speaker, because during 
the time since President Kennedy started the Peace Corps and those 
wonderful people go overseas, many times those volunteers, those young 
Americans, become victims of crime in these foreign countries; and when 
they become victims of crime, in some cases our own country abandons 
them.
  Between 2000 and 2009, the Peace Corps itself says there were over 
221 rapes and attempted rapes, almost 150 major sexual attacks and 700 
other sexual assaults. That is 1,000 crimes against American Peace 
Corps volunteers. Recently, the Peace Corps has announced that there is 
an average of 22 rapes a year against American Peace Corps volunteers 
somewhere in another country.
  This is not acceptable, Mr. Speaker. We are talking about real 
people. They are real stories and they are real victims.
  I would like to mention just one of those persons that I know 
personally. I have got to know Jess Smochek since this crime against 
her has occurred. She joined the Peace Corps in 2004. On her first day 
as a Peace Corps volunteer in Bangladesh, a group of men started 
sexually groping her as she was walking to the house that she was to 
live in. But no one in the Peace Corps did anything about this assault. 
She told the Peace Corps staff over and over again that she felt unsafe 
in Bangladesh and the situation she was in, but the Peace Corps didn't 
do anything.
  Months later, she came in contact with the same men, who then 
kidnapped her. They beat her. They sexually assaulted her. But they 
weren't through. They abandoned her and threw her in an alley somewhere 
in Bangladesh. And no one did anything.
  According to Jess, the Peace Corps did everything they could to cover 
this up because they seemed to be more worried about America's 
relationship with Bangladesh than they were about this American 
volunteer that was assaulted, a victim of crime. Jess says that the 
Peace Corps not only didn't do anything, they blamed her for the 
conduct of others. They blamed her for being a sexual assault victim.
  Mr. Speaker, a rape victim is never to be blamed for the crime that 
is committed against her. It is the fault of the criminal offender, 
whether it occurs in the United States or abroad. We need to understand 
that these precious people who go overseas and represent us somewhere 
in the world, when a crime is committed against them, we need to take 
their side. We need to be supportive of those individuals. And we don't 
assume they did anything wrong, because they did not do anything wrong 
when they became a victim of crime. They were just victims of crime, 
and the person that should be held accountable is the criminal, and not 
to blame the victim.
  Mr. Speaker, rape is never the fault of the victim. It is always the 
fault of the perpetrator.
  But Jess got no satisfaction from the Peace Corps. No one did 
anything. When she got home, she was told to tell other people that she 
was coming back to the United States for medical reasons, to have her 
wisdom teeth pulled, not for the sexual assault that was committed 
against her.

                              {time}  1030

  This was Jess's case. A few others were brought to light recently by 
ABC News and 20/20. And now, more and more of these Peace Corps 
volunteers over the years are coming forward and telling us about their 
stories. Mainly, they are women. We recently had a hearing in Foreign 
Affairs about this situation. Their stories were heart-wrenching. So 
now it's time to pass legislation to protect these women and to give 
them basic victim services, and that is what we will be doing in the 
next few days, along with the Senate.
  Mr. Speaker, people cry, Peace, peace, but there can be no peace for 
American angels abroad until they are treated with the dignity that 
they deserve and the support of the United States. We need to help the 
Peace Corps readjust itself to become a better institution.
  And that's just the way it is.

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