[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 7 (Monday, January 13, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H168-H170]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PEACE CORPS DC COMMEMORATIVE WORK ACT
Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules
and pass the bill (S. 230) to authorize the Peace Corps Commemorative
Foundation to establish a commemorative work in the District of
Columbia and its environs, and for other purposes.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
S. 230
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. MEMORIAL TO COMMEMORATE AMERICA'S COMMITMENT TO
INTERNATIONAL SERVICE AND GLOBAL PROSPERITY.
(a) Authorization To Establish Commemorative Work.--The
Peace Corps Commemorative Foundation may establish a
commemorative work on Federal land in the District of
Columbia and its environs to commemorate the mission of the
Peace Corps and the ideals on which the Peace Corps was
founded.
(b) Compliance With Standards for Commemorative Works
Act.--The establishment of the commemorative work under this
section shall be in accordance with chapter 89 of title 40,
United States Code (commonly known as the ``Commemorative
Works Act'').
(c) Use of Federal Funds Prohibited.--
(1) In general.--Federal funds may not be used to pay any
expense of the establishment of the commemorative work under
this section.
(2) Responsibility of peace corps.--The Peace Corps
Commemorative Foundation shall be solely responsible for
acceptance of contributions for, and payment of the expenses
of, the establishment of the commemorative work under this
section.
(d) Deposit of Excess Funds.--If, on payment of all
expenses for the establishment of the commemorative work
under this section (including the maintenance and
preservation amount required by section 8906(b)(1) of title
40, United States Code), or on expiration of the authority
for the commemorative work under section 8903(e) of title 40,
United States Code, there remains a balance of funds received
for the establishment of the commemorative work, the Peace
Corps Commemorative Foundation shall transmit the amount of
the balance to the Secretary of the Interior for deposit in
the account provided for in section 8906(b)(3) of title 40,
United States Code.
SEC. 2. BUDGETARY EFFECTS.
The budgetary effects of this Act, for the purpose of
complying with the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, shall
be determined by reference to the latest statement titled
``Budgetary Effects of PAYGO Legislation'' for this Act,
submitted for printing in the Congressional Record by the
Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, provided that such
statement has been submitted prior to the vote on passage.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Washington (Mr. Hastings) and the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Grijalva)
each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Washington.
General Leave
Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that
all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their
remarks and include extraneous material on the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Washington?
There was no objection.
Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as
I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, S. 230 will authorize the Peace Corps Commemorative
Foundation to establish a commemorative work on Federal land in the
District of Columbia to recognize the foundation of the Peace Corps and
the ideals upon which it was founded. The project must be planned and
constructed with non-Federal funds and executed consistent with the
Commemorative Works Act, which includes the moratorium for projects on
the National Mall reserve.
With that, I urge adoption of the bill, and I reserve the balance of
my time.
Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Last November, we marked the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy's
tragic assassination. Losing President Kennedy left a lasting scar on
the American psyche, but his legacy lives on through his words and
ideas, including the establishment of the Peace Corps, an institution
that has sent over 200,000 Americans to 139 countries in its 52-year
history.
S. 230 authorizes construction of a memorial to commemorate the
mission of the Peace Corps and the values on which it was founded. I
cannot think of a better way to celebrate President Kennedy's legacy
and the tremendous accomplishments of the Peace Corps.
With the passage of S. 230, we will be sending a worthwhile bill to
the President's desk. I am glad we have been able to put our
differences aside and pass such a meaningful bill in the first few
weeks of the new year.
Both Congressman Sam Farr, who sponsored the House companion to this
legislation in prior Congresses, and Representative Kennedy, who is the
sponsor this Congress, deserve our thanks for the diligence in getting
this legislation approved today.
With that, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to yield 3
minutes to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Petri), a former Peace
Corps member.
Mr. PETRI. I thank my colleague for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the bill before us, S. 230, which
would authorize the Peace Corps Commemorative Foundation to establish a
memorial in our Nation's Capital to honor the formation of the Peace
Corps and the thousands of volunteers who have represented our American
ideals to communities around the world for over 50 years.
I was honored to have the opportunity to serve in the Peace Corps in
Somalia, and I saw firsthand the contribution that Peace Corps
volunteers make to the communities they serve. The continued selfless
and noble service outside our borders remains a testament to the
American ideals embodied by the Peace Corps volunteers I served with
and those who are serving our Nation today.
The creation of the Peace Corps by Congress and President John F.
Kennedy in 1961 marked a fundamental turning point in American foreign
policy. The values and ideals of America were put into action to help
meet the needs of people and communities in developing countries
through volunteer service abroad.
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When I was serving, we were taught that we were representing the
American people, not necessarily the American Government. Therefore, I
believe that a memorial to mark over 50 years of service by our fellow
Americans that is paid for with voluntary contributions is an
appropriate indication of the public support for all the volunteers
that have and will continue to represent America in many different
societies around the world.
The memorials in Washington, D.C., tell the story of the people and
events that have shaped our Nation's history and our fundamental
ideals. The founding of the Peace Corps was an expression of those
ideals and will continue to inspire new generations of Americans to
embrace the belief that we can and should reach out to uplift those
around us. As such, I believe a memorial commemorating 50 years of
Peace Corps history and volunteerism would be a meaningful part of the
National Capital landscape.
I encourage my colleagues to consider this bill in the spirit in
which it is being offered, as a privately funded commemorative effort,
and join me in supporting S. 230.
Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the
gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Kennedy), the sponsor of the House
companion to the legislation.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of this piece of
legislation. I want to thank the chairman and the ranking member for
their diligence and their hard work in bringing this bill to the floor.
I also want to recognize my esteemed college from Wisconsin for his
service in the Peace Corps and his dedicated public service ever since,
and recognize my fellow returned Peace Corps volunteers that are on the
floor as well.
Mr. Speaker, this piece of legislation seeks to recognize the
commitment not just of Peace Corps volunteers, but some of the core
values and ideals of our country. As a returned Peace Corps volunteer
myself, serving in the Dominican Republic, I got to see some
extraordinary, dedicated American citizens working day in and day out
in some very tough circumstances over the course of their over-2 years
of service.
{time} 1715
And of all of the memories that come up in my 27 months abroad, one
has particularly stuck with me. About a year or so into my service, I
was on my way back into Santo Domingo, the nation's capital, on a bus
initially designed for probably about eight, but with about 20 people
crammed into it.
I was in the second-to-last row with a backpack on my lap, when an
older gentleman tapped me on the shoulder and asked, in Spanish, Cuerpo
de Paz, inquiring if I was actually a Peace Corps volunteer.
Apparently, I didn't blend in quite as well as I had hoped.
The gentleman explained that he grew up on the outskirts of Santo
Domingo in a rural village that, at the time, didn't have any running
water, and a Peace Corps volunteer arrived and helped construct an
aqueduct to bring clean water to the village.
He, at that point, thanked me, not for my work, but for the work that
that other volunteer had done decades before. He never asked my name.
He never asked where I was from. He never asked what I did. He just
said thank you; and a few moments later, the bus stopped, he got off
and I never saw him again.
It is that generosity of spirit, that dedication to the ideals and
values of this country that Peace Corps represents and that this
monument will seek to commemorate in our Nation's Capital for time to
come.
I am so grateful for the support of our other Peace Corps volunteers
that are serving in Congress and want to thank them for all the work
that they did to make this day come to fruition.
Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my
time.
Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as he may consume to
the gentleman from California (Mr. Garamendi), a returned Peace Corps
volunteer who served his 2 years in Ethiopia.
Mr. GARAMENDI. Thank you, Mr. Grijalva, and I thank the chairman for
bringing this bill to the floor.
What is there to say? 150,000-or-more men and women from America have
gone out across the world to give the very best of this country, the
service, to assist in numerous ways, everything from teaching to
community development and everything in between.
My wife and I were two of those 150,000-plus Americans. Our service
was in Ethiopia. And it is hard to say, coming back from those years,
what actually happened. But what actually happened is progress was
made.
The school in which my wife taught now has computers in their school
as a result of her work and the work of her students who came back 30,
40 years after they had graduated from that elementary school, to help
in their school to carry on the tradition of service.
This particular piece of legislation would simply authorize an effort
by a nonprofit organization to build a commemorative program here in
Washington, D.C. No Federal money is needed.
There is a long, long process that would lead to the culmination of
this, but I believe, having seen the 50th anniversary program here in
Washington, in which tens of thousands of returned Peace Corps
volunteers and young men and women that want to become Peace Corps
volunteers, came to Washington to commemorate the 50th anniversary. So,
now, a year and a half later, here we are moving this piece of
legislation.
We ought to do it; and, ultimately, I believe that there will be a
commemoration, some sign of a memorial here in Washington, D.C., that
will speak to peace, will speak to the yearning that Americans have for
peace around the world, for a better world for all of us, wherever that
may be, whether it is in the former Soviet Union countries or in those
developing countries in Africa, Asia, or in Latin America.
This is a good thing, and I am going to give just one more example.
In the year 2000, a group of returned Peace Corps volunteers returned
to Ethiopia and Eritrea. In the midst of a war in which some 80,000
Ethiopians and Eritreans were killed, that group of returned Peace
Corps volunteers were able to speak to the heads of state.
The U.S. Government couldn't talk to them, nor could other
governments. But it turned out that both of those heads of state were
taught in their high school by Peace Corps volunteers, and they were
willing to talk to those returned volunteers. And from those
discussions came the formulation of the settlement of that war.
You never know where the impact will be felt, but I know it is felt
in every country in which Peace Corps volunteers have served, and it is
felt here in the United States and in this Congress by men and women
that have served in the Peace Corps.
Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my
time.
Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as he may consume to
the gentleman from California (Mr. Farr), another returned Peace Corps
volunteer, who served his 2 years in Colombia and who has sponsored
this legislation in previous Congresses.
Mr. FARR. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for scheduling and for
bringing this bill to the floor.
I am so proud that this bill is being brought to the floor by a
Kennedy. President Kennedy appealed to the youth of this country with
his inaugural address. I was a junior in college when he was sworn in,
and that speech which has been repeated so much, of asking this country
to think about what people in this country could do to help the
country, rather than the government helping them, that call for action.
Today, 7,209 volunteers are spread out in 65 different countries
around the world.
In President Kennedy's last State of the Union address, he said this:
Nothing carries the spirit of American idealism and
expresses our hopes better and more effectively to the far
corners of the Earth than the Peace Corps.
That is as true today as it was in the sixties, and what is so
wonderful about this moment of sort of history and the folks that play
in it is when I went into the Peace Corps in South America, the
nickname, because the Kennedys were so popular, particularly in
Colombia, the country that I went to, that we were called ``hijos de
Kennedy,'' children of Kennedy. That is what the nickname for the Peace
Corps was.
And isn't it so wonderful that we had a child of a Kennedy--Joe
Kennedy is
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now a Member of Congress--who is now able to carry this legislation.
The torch is getting passed to a new generation. I carried this bill
before, and I was so glad to be able to pass that torch to Joe. He is
going to pass this torch to his children and other children, and we are
going to keep the Peace Corps alive.
This commemorative that we are going to do here in Washington will
remind the world that the Peace Corps is our best hope and chance for
world peace.
Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close if
the gentleman is prepared to close.
Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, before yielding back the remainder of our
time, let me congratulate the sponsors of the legislation, Mr. Kennedy,
Mr. Hastings, for moving this rapidly through our committee, our
chairman, and to the alumni of the Peace Corps that are a part of this
great body, and to say that this legislation marks an acknowledgment of
this great country providing to the world its greatest resource, its
people, their talent, their intelligence, and their drive.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance
of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I just want to say, which was repeated by, I think,
every Member that spoke on this piece of legislation, that this
legislation will require no Federal funds. And when you think about
that, from the volunteer standpoint of those that went overseas and did
what they did in their missions, I think that this is fitting that we
should establish something from the private sector that commemorates
what they have done on behalf of our government.
So I think this is a good piece of legislation. I urge its adoption.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Washington (Mr. Hastings) that the House suspend the
rules and pass the bill, S. 230.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas
and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further
proceedings on this motion will be postponed.
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