[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.

[[Page H169]]

  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

[[Page H170]]

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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