I still think of myself as a Peace Corps volunteer. My service in Iran from 1962 to 1964 was one of the most important experiences of my youth.
Congressmen call for expanded Peace Corps
By KAJA PERINA
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - They served in the Peace Corps three decades ago, helping fishermen in Fiji and teaching English to Iranians.
Now, some of them serve in Congress and the president's Cabinet.
Greeting a House committee Wednesday in Fijian and Farsi - the languages of their host countries - Rep. Chris Shays, R-Conn., and Health Secretary Donna Shalala urged support for President Clinton's call for 10,000 volunteers by 2000.
``Of all the programs our government supports, the Peace Corps ranks among the most effective,'' Shalala said. ``I still think of myself as a Peace Corps volunteer. My service in Iran from 1962 to 1964 was one of the most important experiences of my youth.''
President Clinton has proposed a $45 million increase for the Peace Corps next year, boosting its budget to $270 million and increasing the volunteer work force. Some 6,500 volunteers serve in 84 countries.
The Peace Corps has long enjoyed bipartisan congressional support and Rep. Ben Gilman, R-N.Y., the House International Relations Committee chairman, emphasized that.
Rep. James T. Walsh, R-N.Y., who served in Nepal, called the Peace Corps ``the greatest foreign policy initiative ever instituted in this nation.''
Sen. Paul Coverdell, R-Ga., Peace Corps director during the Bush administration, cited former first lady Barbara Bush's adage that the Peace Corps is ``the biggest bang for your buck in D.C.''
``I never met an American ambassador who didn't think that our best ambassadors are Peace Corps volunteers,'' Coverdell testified.
Peace Corps Director Mark Gearan said the agency has logged record numbers of potential volunteers in recent years and that overseas programs continue to expand. Volunteers served for the first time in South Africa and Jordan in 1997 and will soon break ground in Bangladesh, Mozambique and the former Soviet republic of Georgia.
Under Gearan's leadership, the Peace Corps includes the newly established ``Crisis Corps,'' in which experienced volunteers accept short-term assignments in disaster areas. The agency also helps indigenous volunteer organizations with similar aims, from Chile to the Czech Republic.