[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 39 (Wednesday, March 1, 2023)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E165]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





       REINTRODUCTION OF PEACE CORPS REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2023

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JOHN GARAMENDI

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, March 1, 2023

  Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, today on National Peace Corps Day, I 
reintroduce the ``Peace Corps Reauthorization Act of 2023''. Sixty-two 
years ago today, on March 1, 1961, President John F. Kennedy 
established the Peace Corps, and this legislation will enable the Peace 
Corps to continue their legacy. As the co-chair of the Congressional 
Peace Corps Caucus and the only returned Peace Corps volunteer serving 
in Congress, I know that this critical legislation will invigorate the 
Peace Corps and ensure that its essential work can continue to shape 
and inspire people around the world for years to come. I thank my 
colleagues Ranking Member Gregory Meeks (NY-05), Congressman Garret 
Graves (LA-6), and Delegate Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen (R-AS) for 
being the bill's original cosponsors. I also appreciate Senate Foreign 
Relations Chairman Robert Menendez and Ranking Member Jim Risch for 
their leadership on the Senate companion bill in the 117th Congress and 
look forward to continuing this partnership.
  President John F. Kennedy signed the Peace Corps Act into law to 
``permit our people to exercise more fully their responsibilities in 
the great common cause of world peace''. He set out three goals: unpack 
your bag, live with and help meet the needs of your new community; in 
your new community work to create a better understanding of America by 
being the real face of America; and bring an understanding of the World 
back home.
  My wife, Patti, and I answered JFK's call to service, beginning our 
careers in public service when we joined the Peace Corps as young 
married graduates fresh out of UC Berkeley. Our post was to a remote 
village in Western Ethiopia. We taught the 7th and 8th grades and 
engaged in community development.
  Over 60 years since the first volunteer arrived in Liberia, more than 
240,000 Americans have served in 142 countries. Over the years, 
volunteers advanced agriculture production, taught, provided medication 
education and health services, created cooperative road building, and 
brought every conceivable skill that every nation needed.
  My bill, the bipartisan ``Peace Corps Reauthorization Act of 2023'', 
builds upon the Sam Farr and Nick Castle Peace Corps Reform Act of 2018 
and the Kate Puzey Peace Corps Volunteer Protection Act of 2011; making 
critical reforms to the agency to support current and returned 
volunteers. It strengthens the protection of volunteers against 
reprisals or retaliations for reporting wrongdoing and increases the 
federal workers' compensation rate for all Peace Corps volunteers 
injured or disabled during their service.
  In total, this bill would provide the necessary federal resources to 
better support international programs, and current, returning, and 
former Peace Corps volunteers. JFK gave the call to service, ``ask not 
what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your 
country''. It is truly an honor to reintroduce this legislation on 
National Peace Corps Day.

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