[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 8247]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           SERVICE TO COUNTRY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Connecticut (Mr. Larson) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about 
national service. I am delighted, as you can see from these posters, to 
be standing next to President Kennedy and General McChrystal.
  Many of you may know that this Monday, Memorial Day, May 29, would be 
the 100th birthday of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. What better way to 
remember his legacy than by a call to national service, a call that has 
been echoed by General McChrystal as well. I love the headline that 
says: You don't have to wear a military uniform to serve your country.
  President Kennedy came up with the idea of the Peace Corps at a time 
when we faced nuclear threats and rising concern of proliferation of 
nuclear arms; at a time when Russia, as it still is today, was a very 
strong enemy of the United States. President Kennedy felt that the 
United States needed to put their best face on for the rest of the 
world, so he established a Peace Corps and sent the brightest and best 
all across the globe so that they could represent the values of this 
great country of ours. What better way to do that than through serving 
your country, by making sure you are not asking what your country can 
do for you but what you, in fact, can do for your country.
  We are proposing a concept called ACTION for National Service, action 
so that we can encourage people throughout the country to participate 
in voluntary service. Whether you serve in the military voluntarily, 
the Guard or the National Reserve, or whether it is the Peace Corps, 
AmeriCorps VISTA, or you are part of the Corporation for National and 
Community Service and one of the many agencies that work to provide a 
better world both here at home and abroad.
  Our goal is very simple and direct. We want to make sure, as General 
McChrystal has outlined, that by 2026, which would be the 250th 
birthday of this Nation, that we have a million volunteers annually who 
are coming in to service. We will provide an incentive for people to do 
so, very clear and simple: If you serve your country, we will help you 
get through college. If you have been through college and you want to 
serve your country, if you serve your Nation, we will forgive your 
college debt.
  We know that, in attracting a million people to public service, we 
can do great good across the globe. We want to make sure that we raise 
the Corporation for National and Community Service to a Cabinet-level 
position within the White House. We want to encourage people. More than 
400,000 millennials were turned away from serving their country last 
year. Less than 1 percent of the Nation, including all of our military 
and the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps VISTA combined, account for less 
than 1 percent of the Nation. How can a nation long survive with a 
population of 330 million people and less than 1 percent of its 
countrymen serving this great Nation of ours?
  This is a national crisis. At a time when we have to make sure that 
we are encouraging and nurturing our great democracy, we need our 
citizens to become more involved. That is why, on Thursday of this 
week, we are going to be rolling out a bill that will do just that and 
do so in a manner that will elevate the Corporation for National and 
Community Service to a Cabinet-level position, create the goal of 
establishing a million volunteers annually by 2026, incentivizing them 
to serve so that if you serve your country, we will forgive your debt; 
or if you serve your country, we will help you go to college or get the 
kind of training that you need to be a participant while also gaining 
the knowledge and expertise and the values that come from community 
service. Join us. We will be live on YouTube Thursday morning at 9 
o'clock.

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