By Admin1 (admin) (pool-151-196-25-92.balt.east.verizon.net - 151.196.25.92) on Monday, November 10, 2003 - 12:17 pm: Edit Post |
Our Letter to Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski
Our Letter to Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski
Senator Barbara Mikulski
United States Senate
Washington, DC
Dear Senator Mikulski,
My name is Hugh Pickens, I live in Baltimore and I am President of the Maryland Returned Volunteers, the organization that represents Maryland's 2,000 Returned Peace Corps Volunteers. I also run a web site called "Peace Corps Online" that provides news and commentary about the Peace Corps and receives over 100,000 visitors every month from Returned Peace Corps Volunteers and Friends of the Peace Corps around the world.
I am writing because you are a member of the Conference Committee for the Foreign Operations Appropriations Bills that have passed the House and Senate that contain the funding for the Peace Corps.
I would like to ask you on behalf of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers who live in Maryland and all over the world to please support the full $359 Million budget request that President Bush has made to fund the Peace Corps in 2004. The appropriation contained in the two bills that have passed Congress is about $40 M short of President Bush's request and although this is enough to continue support for the Peace Corps, it is not enough to support the expansion of the Peace Corps that President Bush called for in his State of the Union Address in 2002.
Forty Million dollars is a drop in the bucket, it is a round-off error in the Federal budget, but I believe this $40 M may be the best spent money the government can make for increasing understanding between America and the rest of the world and supporting the "war on terrorism" and bringing security to Americans at home. I believe your support would also be a fitting honor to one of Maryland's most illustrious residents, Sargent Shriver, founding Director of the Peace Corps, who will be celebrating his 88th birthday in two days and who also strongly supports expansion of the Peace Corps.
Thank you for your consideration of this request.
Yours Sincerely,
Hugh Pickens
Peru, 1970 - 73