Health, Safety, and Security of Peace Corps Volunteers Act of 2004

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, let me just say, Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of this legislation; and I urge my colleagues to do so as well.

First, Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde), the ranking member, the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos), and the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith). I want to thank all of them for their very strong interest and support of the Peace Corps, its nearly 8,000 volunteers and the larger Peace Corps community.

Now, last year, Mr. Speaker, the House of Representatives approved the Peace Corps Expansion Act, which is designed to double the size of the Peace Corps and to increase its effectiveness overseas.

The legislation before us today builds upon this important initiative by focusing on the need to improve the safety and the security of our Peace Corps volunteers. While most Peace Corps volunteers have a safe and positive experience, the General Accounting Office testified before the committee that volunteers under-reported crimes against them in part due to the belief that the Peace Corps lacks the capacity or the willingness to help.

The GAO and the other witnesses also testified that the lack of well- developed assignments really discourages volunteers from adequately immersing themselves in their host communities and thereby benefiting from the protections afforded to members from these villages and also those towns.

Finally, the witnesses noted that the administrative impediments such as limitations on terms of employment within the Peace Corps and worrisome changes within the Office of Medical Services constrain Peace Corps employees from providing the best possible support to volunteers.

Mr. Speaker, the bill that we are considering today addresses these issues by establishing an ombudsman within the agency to listen and to attend to volunteer and employee concerns by increasing the independence of the Inspector General of the Peace Corps to strengthen his ability or her ability to act as a watchdog on behalf of volunteers, also by requiring the agency to study and to report to us on how it can improve programming for volunteers and by lifting the term limits for key offices within the agency. I strongly support all of these provisions.

Now, just as I support this bill to enhance the security and well- being of the volunteers, I also might mention support for legislation which I have introduced to create a special postage stamp through the Peace Stamp Act which calls for the creation of a stamp, the revenues from which would send money to the Peace Corps. This stamp would help provide funding, badly needed funding, for the increased Peace Corps force that President Bush has called for. This bill, H.R. 4060, which we have before us today, will help us ensure the well-being of an expanded Peace Corps.

Mr. Speaker, we must not lose sight of the fact that Peace Corps volunteers for over 40 years have been doing extraordinary jobs as our development ambassadors to the most remote centers of the world. They have truly been our very best ambassadors; and they have been doing their jobs, quite frankly, under very difficult and oftentimes very risky conditions. However, as we consider measures to improve the health, safety and security of our volunteers, we must be careful not to forge shields around our volunteers which will make it harder for them to reach the young English student, for example, in Central Asia or the Women's Cooperative in Peru and to reach and really pursue their own growth and development. So there is this very delicate balance that we must meet and we must put together, and I believe this bill does that.

I strongly support passage of this legislation and urge my colleagues to do so as well.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Farr), a good friend, a great leader in this

House, a former Peace Corps volunteer who served in Colombia and who knows the Peace Corps backwards and forwards and who has provided many years of service not only in this body but in many legislative bodies, and I think especially and most importantly for us today as our Peace Corps volunteer.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I will close for our side with just these few comments. I want to thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Farr) for his comments and for his really deep and abiding commitment to the Peace Corps.

I will say that I have had the privilege since I guess about 1980 to travel and meet with Peace Corps volunteers throughout the world. What I have witnessed in terms of their level of commitment, their level of understanding of their work and their real commitment not only to their region or their community or their village where they are working but really to the entire world is really phenomenal; and I want to support the gentleman from California (Mr. Farr) in his position and his comment that we need to fully fund the Peace Corps at the levels that the administration has requested.

Having said that, let me just say how important this measure is today. Those Peace Corps volunteers who are out there, as I said earlier, representing our country, they are really our best ambassadors; and, minimally, we should provide for every bit of security and safety that they need, everything that they need to make their job not only rewarding but safe so that they can return and really share their experiences with those who have not had the opportunity to volunteer abroad and help develop even an expanded and larger Peace Corps force.

Let me thank everyone for their support of this bill for ensuring that it is a bipartisan bill.

Mr. Speaker, we have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4060) to amend the Peace Corps Act to establish an Ombudsman and an Office of Safety and Security of the Peace Corps, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on the bill under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the Health, Safety, and Security of Peace Corps Volunteers Act of 2004.

The members of the Committee on International Relations received testimony in March at an important oversight hearing on the Peace Corps. We heard about some of the past problems and current problems the Peace Corps faces as it expands the number of volunteers around the world while at the same time taking into account the changed circumstances for American citizens living abroad during the post- September 11 period.

I am a very strong, long-time supporter of the Peace Corps. My colleagues and I who are strong supporters of the Peace Corps admire the sacrifice and important work that these volunteers do. We want to ensure through this legislation that the Peace Corps has the necessary procedures in place to protect our Nation's sons and daughters, or parents and grandparents, who dedicate 2 years of their lives to improving the circumstances of the peoples of the developing world.

Mr. Speaker, at the March hearing we inquired into the adequacy of safety and security practices that govern volunteer assignments in more dangerous places around the world. We found that in Bolivia in 2001 the Peace Corps did not have in place the necessary management procedures to monitor or to account for a missing volunteer named Walter Poirier. We learned that the Poirier family of Lowell, Massachusetts, had to notify the Peace Corps that their son was missing. We understand from the General Accounting Office that the Peace Corps has taken important steps to remedy some of these problems, but still there is room for improvement.

H.R. 4060 is intended to prepare the Peace Corps for expansion in a more dangerous world. The bill makes a number of important changes to the Peace Corps Act.

The legislation creates the position of ombudsman to receive and inquire into complaints, questions or concerns raised by current or former volunteers or employees regarding services or support provided by the Peace Corps. The legislation statutorily creates an Office of Safety and Security within the Peace Corps to be headed by an Associate Director for Safety and Security who shall be responsible for all safety and security activities of the Peace Corps.

This bill requires a report on the medical screening procedures and guidelines used by the Peace Corps to determine whether an applicant is medically and psychologically qualified to serve in the Peace Corps as a volunteer. The legislation also requires a report by the Comptroller General on the ``5-year rule'' which was cited by the GAO in previous reports as one of the reasons for an unacceptably high degree of staff turnover and loss of institutional memory, especially on safety and security matters.

The legislation also creates a more independent Inspector General of the Peace Corps, exempting that individual and the staff of the I.G. from the 5-year rule, and creating more accountable oversight by this committee through increased access to information from the I.G. on all matters relating to the management of the Peace Corps.

Mr. Speaker, this legislation responds to the concerns addressed by our witnesses last week and also responds to the concerns raised by current and former volunteers who have contacted the committee to discuss their experience with the Peace Corps. I ask support for this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee) for managing the bill for the Democrats and the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) for his work in crafting this legislation. I especially want to thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde) for authoring this very important piece of legislation to make sure to the greatest extent possible that U.S. professionals--of all ages--who are deployed abroad as part of the Peace Corps, one of the finest U.S. initiatives ever created, get the best possible protection and security. We need to provide them protection, that is second to none, so that they can be safe and secure.

Obviously, when people are deployed to dangerous areas, there are risks that are associated with that commitment. Still, it is up to this Congress, the State Department, and the administration, to ensure that no stone is left unturned in trying to make sure that Peace Corps volunteers are safe and secure in that environment

No bill comes to this floor without a tremendous amount of work by very competent staff, and Peter Smith has helped to draft this legislation. I want to thank him especially for his fine work and his skill and expertise in drafting this bill, as well as Paul Oostburg for his work on it as well.

Mr. Speaker, I urge Members to support H.R. 4060.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of our time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee) for yielding me time and for allowing me to join her on the floor today. I want to thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde) and members of the committee for allowing me to attend the hearing that led to the markup of this bill.

I served in the Peace Corps, and it holds a really special place in my heart, as it does for four other Members of Congress who are also return Peace Corps volunteers. Our colleagues, the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Shays), the gentleman from New York (Mr. Walsh), the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Petri), the gentleman from California (Mr. Honda) and myself all are return Peace Corps volunteers.

In the 1960s I spent 2 years serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia, South America. My experience as a Peace Corps volunteer helped me to motivate my life to public service and I think helped shape me into the person I am today. And there are tens and tens of thousands of Americans who have served in the Peace Corps in over 130 countries throughout the world and who have had similar experiences.

The vast majority of the return Peace Corps volunteers agree with the sentiment that the Peace Corps experience was the toughest job they ever loved. Peace Corps not only benefits individual Americans, but it also helps the developing world and makes the world a bit safer one volunteer at a time. The important community-based jobs the Peace Corps volunteers perform are instrumental in helping to bring about greater peace and security in the world. Not only are PCVs helping people in developing countries overcome poverty, one of the root causes of terrorism, they are also showing the world a different, friendlier face of what Americans are really like.

Peace Corps volunteers live, eat and work amongst the people in countries from Albania to Zambia. In this type of environment, where a Peace Corps volunteer is teaching hand washing to a child or computer literacy to a brother, the realization quickly dawns on the people, regardless of their nationality, that we have more similarities than differences. This people-to-people interaction is the real recipe for creating more peace and stability in the world.

Today we are discussing the Health, Safety and Security of Peace Corps Volunteers Act of 2004, which tries to improve the safety of volunteers who can sometime serve in isolated areas of the world. H.R. 4060 addresses some important issues and tries to increase the safety and oversight of the Peace Corps.

I am very pleased that this bill does not mandate that volunteers must be paired together in communities. The best security measure for Peace Corps volunteers is for them to integrate quickly into their communities. Pairing volunteers would impede I think in this integration into the host country.

My major concern with H.R. 4060, though, is that the safety and security measures should not take away from the important existing budgetary requirements of the Peace Corps. Let me end by reminding this body that in the currently constricted budget environment we need to carefully allocate our resources. Just recently, General Abizaid, who is head of the Middle East, let our Committee on Appropriations know that he thought America would never be able to have world peace until we were able to cross the cultural divides.

I cannot think of any better investment that the United States Congress can make than to fully fund the Peace Corps as the President has requested in his State of the Union Address. What he asked was to double the size of the Peace Corps, which we have, but now we have failed to meet the President's demands on what it will take to do that. That is a very bad mistake at this time in the history of the United States.

I am glad the Congress is concerned with the safety of volunteers, but I urge each of our Members, when it comes to the appropriations process, let us meet the President's request. Let us fully fund the Peace Corps. Let us indeed teach America how to cross the cultural divide and create world peace forever.

Mr. Speaker, as we consider H.R. 4060, the Health, Safety, and Security of Peace Corps Volunteers Act of 2004, I want to bring to my colleagues' attention the tragic disappearance of a Peace Corps Volunteer from my Congressional District, Walter Poirier of Lowell, Massachusetts.

Walter Poirier served as a tourism advocate in the Zongo Valley of Bolivia from August of 2000 until May of 2001 when he was officially declared missing by the U.S. Embassy. He has never been seen since. Following Walter's disappearance, I requested a GAO investigation of this case, which concluded that the Peace Corps failed to adequately supervise Walter and eventually lost track of him. The GAO also found that the Peace Corps provided ``uneven'' implementation of its own safety and security procedures that could pose a risk for its volunteers. I am now writing a letter to Peace Corps Director Gaddi Vasquez urging him to appoint an official to focus solely on the investigation of Walter's disappearance.

Unfortunately, the case of Walter Poirier is not unique. The GAO reports that the incident rate for major physical assaults nearly doubled from an average of 9 per 1,000 volunteer years from 1991-93 to an average of 17 per 1,000 volunteer years in 1998-2000. Despite concerns from Congress and the public that the Peace Corps has not provided the necessary safety and security for its participants, the organization continues to send volunteers alone to remote and isolated areas and fails to provide adequate housing, supervision, or jobs to keep volunteers busy. I remain very concerned about the ability of the Peace Corps to implement its own safety and security policies in the face of rising violence.

I applaud the House International Relations Committee for holding hearings on the safety and security of Peace Corps volunteers and swiftly reporting out the Health, Safety, and Security of Peace Corps Volunteers Act. I also thank the committee for inviting Walter Poirier's father to testify and share his personal story about the tragic loss of his son. I have urged the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to follow suit.

This legislation takes a number of critical steps to enhance safety and security procedures within the Peace Corps, including creating an ombudsman to receive complaints, questions and concerns from current or former volunteers regarding safety and security. The bill also establishes an Office of Safety and Security of the Peace Corps responsible for all safety and security activities at the agency and requires the Peace Corps to report to Congress on the effects of limits imposed on the duration of Peace Corps assignments and a study on medical screening procedures used by the agency.

For decades, Peace Corps volunteers have played a critical role in promoting stability and prosperity in developing countries. Today they are asked to play an even more important role in correcting the misperceptions that many have of America. It's a troubling fact that anti-Americanism is on the rise in many parts of the world. That makes the mission of the Peace Corps more important than ever. But it also makes the task of protecting volunteers more urgent than ever.

While the passage of this legislation is by no means a solution to all of the Peace Corps' security problems, it is certainly a positive step forward. If the Peace Corps wants to fulfill its goal of doubling the size of its agency over the next five years--a goal we all share-- it must provide its volunteers the safety and security they need.

I therefore strongly support the passage of this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 4060, the Health, Safety, and Security of Peace Corps Volunteers Act of 2004.

The Peace Corps represents our nation's enduring commitment to progress, opportunity, and expanded development--beginning at the grassroots level.

Since 1961, more than 170,000 Peace Corps Volunteers have served in 137 countries to promote the Peace Corps' mission of world peace and friendship.

Volunteers offer skills in education, healthcare, business, agriculture and the environment. They respond to the world's most challenging crises like poverty, hunger and HIV/AIDS. They are to be commended for their sacrifice, their hard work and their commitment to improving the lives of others.

Today, more than 7,500 Peace Corps Volunteers--young and old--serve in 71 countries around the world, including 25 volunteers from my Congressional District.

With an increase in volunteers comes a greater challenge for the Peace Corps to ensure the safety and security of all Volunteers. Expanding the Peace Corps' missions in Africa, the Middle East and other volatile regions increases the chance of criminal activities and requires the dedication of greater time, energy and resources toward safety issues.

H.R. 4060 takes a good step toward strengthening the Peace Corps and making sure all Volunteers are safe. The bill creates a Peace Corps Ombudsman to receive and inquire into complaints, questions, or concerns raised by current or former volunteers or employees of the Peace Corps. This legislation also establishes an Office of Safety and Security within the Peace Corps to help coordinate

all security activities. These are important steps which I support.

I believe a Volunteer's safety is both the responsibility of the Peace Corps and the Volunteers themselves. Weeks of safety training and country background preclude any Volunteer's departure overseas and Volunteers are advised of the precautions necessary before integrating into some of the poorest and disparaged communities in the world. As Ambassador and Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, Tony Hall said, ``You have to go into the service with your eyes open''. Nonetheless, it is appropriate that the House International Relations Committee worked with the Peace Corps to address the needed improvements to security for Volunteers and the Peace Corps has begun implementing these changes.

As a member of the House International Relations Committee and a strong supporter of the Peace Corps, I urge passage of this legislation. We must do everything we can to ensure the mission of the Peace Corps is carried on and our Volunteers are protected.