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68–445PDF 2011

TO ESTABLISH POLICIES AND PROCEDURES IN THE PEACE

CORPS TO PROVIDE FOR THE SAFETY AND SECURITY OF

VOLUNTEERS FROM RAPE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT, AND FOR

OTHER PURPOSES; AND TO AMEND THE PEACE CORPS ACT

TO REQUIRE SEXUAL ASSAULT RISK-REDUCTION AND RESPONSE TRAINING, THE DEVELOPMENT OF SEXUAL ASSAULT

PROTOCOL AND GUIDELINES, THE ESTABLISHMENT OF VICTIMS ADVOCATES, THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A SEXUAL ASSAULT ADVISORY COUNCIL, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES

MARKUP

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS

FIRST SESSION

ON

H.R. 2699 and H.R. 2337

SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

Serial No. 112–91

Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs

(

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/

(II)

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida, Chairman 

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey 

DAN BURTON, Indiana 

ELTON GALLEGLY, California 

DANA ROHRABACHER, California 

DONALD A. MANZULLO, Illinois 

EDWARD R. ROYCE, California 

STEVE CHABOT, Ohio 

RON PAUL, Texas 

MIKE PENCE, Indiana 

JOE WILSON, South Carolina 

CONNIE MACK, Florida 

JEFF FORTENBERRY, Nebraska 

MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas 

TED POE, Texas 

GUS M. BILIRAKIS, Florida 

JEAN SCHMIDT, Ohio 

BILL JOHNSON, Ohio 

DAVID RIVERA, Florida 

MIKE KELLY, Pennsylvania 

TIM GRIFFIN, Arkansas 

TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania 

JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina 

ANN MARIE BUERKLE, New York 

RENEE ELLMERS, North Carolina 

VACANT 

HOWARD L. BERMAN, California 

GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York 

ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American 

Samoa 

DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey 

BRAD SHERMAN, California 

ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York 

GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York 

RUSS CARNAHAN, Missouri 

ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey 

GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia 

THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida 

DENNIS CARDOZA, California 

BEN CHANDLER, Kentucky 

BRIAN HIGGINS, New York 

ALLYSON SCHWARTZ, Pennsylvania 

CHRISTOPHER S. MURPHY, Connecticut 

FREDERICA WILSON, Florida 

KAREN BASS, California 

WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts 

DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island 

YLEEM D.S. POBLETE, Staff Director 

RICHARD J. KESSLER, Democratic Staff Director 

(III)

C O N T E N T S 

Page

MARKUP OF 

H.R. 2699, To establish policies and procedures in the Peace Corps to provide 

for the safety and security of volunteers from rape and sexual assault, 

and for other purposes ......................................................................................... 3

Amendment in the nature of a substitute to H.R. 2699 offered by the 

Honorable Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Representative in Congress from the 

State of Florida, and chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs ................... 11

Amendment to the amendment in the nature of a substitute to H.R. 2699 

offered by the Honorable Frederica Wilson, a Representative in Congress 

from the State of Florida ................................................................................. 18

H.R. 2337, To amend the Peace Corps Act to require sexual assault riskreduction and response training, the development of sexual assault protocol 

and guidelines, the establishment of victims advocates, the establishment 

of a Sexual Assault Advisory Council, and for other purposes ........................ 19

Amendment in the nature of a substitute to H.R. 2377 offered by the 

Honorable Ted Poe, a Representative in Congress from the State of 

Texas .................................................................................................................. 38

Amendment to the amendment in the nature of a substitute to H.R. 2377 

offered by the Honorable Ted Poe ................................................................... 60

Amendments to the amendment in the nature of a substitute to H.R. 

2337 offered by the Honorable Frederica Wilson ........................................... 65

APPENDIX 

Markup notice .......................................................................................................... 74

Markup minutes ...................................................................................................... 75

The Honorable Gerald E. Connolly, a Representative in Congress from the 

Commonwealth of Virginia: Prepared statement .............................................. 77

(1)

TO ESTABLISH POLICIES AND PROCEDURES IN THE PEACE 

CORPS TO PROVIDE FOR THE SAFETY AND SECURITY OF 

VOLUNTEERS FROM RAPE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT, AND 

FOR OTHER PURPOSES; AND TO AMEND THE PEACE 

CORPS ACT TO REQUIRE SEXUAL ASSAULT RISK-REDUCTION AND RESPONSE TRAINING, THE DEVELOPMENT OF 

SEXUAL ASSAULT PROTOCOL AND GUIDELINES, THE ESTABLISHMENT OF VICTIMS ADVOCATES, THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A SEXUAL ASSAULT ADVISORY COUNCIL, AND 

FOR OTHER PURPOSES 

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS, Washington, DC. 

The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 o’clock a.m., in 

room 2172 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Ileana RosLehtinen (chairman of the committee) presiding. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. The committee will come to order. 

Pursuant to notice, the committee meets this morning to mark 

up H.R. 2699, the Peace Corps Volunteer Service Improvement Act, 

and H.R. 2337, the Kate Puzey Peace Corps Volunteer Protection 

Act. 

As our members are aware, these reform measures enjoy strong 

bipartisan support and there are competing markups taking place 

in other committees this morning. Thus, as your offices were notified earlier this week, it is the intent of the Chair to consider these 

bills en bloc and by unanimous consent, including the substitute 

amendments sent to you on Monday and the five brief amendments 

sent to you yesterday. 

All members have copies of those documents before them. Then 

after we have concluded our expedited consideration, I will be glad 

to recognize myself, the ranking member, Judge Poe, and any other 

member who wishes to make statements on these measures. All 

members are given leave to insert written remarks into the record 

should they choose to do so. 

And seeing that a reporting quorum is present, without objection 

the following measures are considered as read and the Chairman 

is authorized to seek consideration of the following bills under suspension of the rules, and the following amendments to those bills 

which the members have before them shall be deemed adopted: 

H.R. 2699, the Peace Corps Volunteer Service Improvement Act, 

Ros-Lehtinen; and amendment 87 to H.R. 2699 which is the 

amendment in the nature of a substitute provided to your offices 

on Monday; and amendment 35 to that amendment offered by Ms. 

Wilson of Florida—and it’s been a delight to have been working 

2

with you, Ms. Wilson—thank you for your good suggestions on the 

bills; H.R. 2337, the Kate Puzey Peace Corps Volunteer Protection 

Act, the Poe amendment 178 to H.R. 2337 which is the amendment 

in the nature of a substitute sent to your offices on Monday and 

the following amendments to that amendment 178, amendment 

179 offered by Judge Poe and amendments 30, 33, and 34 offered 

by Ms. Wilson of Florida. 

Hearing no objection it is so ordered. The amendments and the 

amended bills are adopted. Without objection the staff is directed 

to make technical and conforming changes. 

[The information referred to follows:]

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Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Now that we have completed formal 

consideration of these measures, I will recognize members for remarks. I have some remarks, but let me just turn first to the ranking member and Judge Poe and any others who seek recognition. 

My good friend from California, Mr. Berman, is recognized. 

Mr. BERMAN. Well, thank you very much, Madam Chairman. 

Thank you for a number of things in terms of dealing with this legislation. I think this marks an important step toward improving 

the safety and security of volunteers that serve in the Peace Corps. 

We took up the issue of volunteer safety earlier this year after the 

broadcast of an extremely disturbing report on the ABC news program 20/20. The segment detailed the experiences of a number of 

young volunteers who were sexually assaulted while serving overseas, but didn’t receive the care and support they needed from the 

Peace Corps. The show also examined the circumstances surrounding the death of Kate Puzey, a volunteer in the West African 

country of Benin who was murdered after reporting that a fellow 

teacher was sexually abusing some of his students. 

In May, we held a very useful hearing on these issues under your 

leadership with witnesses that included return volunteers who 

were survivors of sexual assault, the Inspector General of the 

Peace Corps, and the Peace Corps Director. 

The testimony we received from the survivors and the Inspector 

General provided very concrete suggestions on ways to improve the 

Peace Corps which we have done our best to incorporate into these 

bills. These include requiring the Peace Corps to have comprehensive policies and training for volunteers and staff on risk reduction 

and response; the establishment of a victim support office to focus 

exclusively on supporting victims of sexual assault and other 

crimes; and completing a Memorandum of Understanding between 

the Peace Corps and the State Department clarifying security-related responsibilities. 

To his credit, the Peace Corps Director, Aaron Williams, detailed 

the steps the Agency has already taken to improve support for victims of sexual assault and other crimes. And what he told us was 

very encouraging. The Peace Corps has already hired a victims advocate, established a confidentiality policy, and started the process 

of rewriting and updating their sexual assault risk reduction and 

response policies and training. These bills codify some of the important measures that Director Williams has put in place to ensure 

they are retained by future directors. 

At the hearing, I suggested that what we needed to do was some 

good old-fashioned oversight: Gathering facts, asking the tough 

questions, developing a responsible bipartisan approach to fix any 

problems we find. And that’s what you’ve done with this work on 

the Peace Corps bills. We’ve gotten valuable input from the NGOs, 

advocacy groups, our partners in the Senate and the Peace Corps. 

The result is a comprehensive balanced bill that will make the 

Peace Corps a better organization for all of its volunteers and its 

partner countries. 

Madam Chairman, this is a model for how the legislative process 

is supposed to work and I’d truly like to thank both you and Mr. 

Poe and your staffs for involving us with you in developing these 

important issues. 

68

On its 50th anniversary, Peace Corps continues to perform a 

vital role in promoting community-based development in some of 

the world’s poorest countries, sharing American values, enriching 

our own Nation by bringing knowledge of other countries and cultures back to the United States. No agency with such a modest 

budget has done more than the Peace Corps to extend America’s 

presence in every part of the world. None has enjoyed such bipartisan support. These bills will strengthen the Peace Corps and help 

ensure the Agency can continue to do its important work well into 

the future. And I urge my colleagues to support these pieces of legislation. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you so much, Mr. Berman. The 

Chair recognizes herself for her statement. 

I’d like to thank the ranking member, Mr. Berman, for his support and his cooperation in a bipartisan manner on this timely 

issue. Versions of both of these bills were adopted by our committee 

as Title 10 of H.R. 2583, the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, 

and not a single one of the 84 amendments offered to the authorization bill altered the Peace Corps provisions. So it’s important 

that Congress act now to put in place the protections contained in 

the two bills before us. 

I’d like to thank Ms. Lois Puzey, the mother of Kate Puzey. I’d 

like to thank Dr. Karestan Koenen, Jessica Smocheck, and Carol 

Clark who were so brave in their testimony before our committee. 

They were deeply inspiring, and our committee is committed to 

making sure that their voices are heard loud and clear. 

And now it’s my pleasure to recognize the author of H.R. 2337, 

Judge Poe, for his remarks on these measures. And my complete 

statement—as well as everyone’s complete statement, as I said in 

the beginning—will be inserted in the record. 

Judge Poe is recognized. 

Mr. POE. I want to thank the chairman for her great work on 

this legislation and the ranking member and the chairman for 

holding this mark up today. 

I first became aware of this tragic mistreatment of some volunteers in the Peace Corps when I met with victims last Fall. They 

talked about how the Peace Corps, in some areas, had a culture of 

blaming the victim when a crime was committed against the victim. Let me be clear. When a victim or person is raped, they are 

the victim of the crime and it’s never their fault. The crime is always the fault of the perpetrator, never the victim. 

And, over the next few months after these first meetings, the 

media confirmed what victims had been telling me, that these were 

not just one or two isolated cases. The cases were representative 

of a problem that the Peace Corps was having. So, suddenly, I 

started hearing from Peace Corps volunteers previously and 

present who were mistreated by Peace Corps, those that had been 

with the Peace Corps and had left the Peace Corps, and those that 

were currently in the Peace Corps. 

One thing I want to make perfectly clear. I’m a big supporter of 

the Peace Corps. It does a great service for this nation. It’s one of 

the best things that we have ever invented, but we need to fix some 

of the problems that are in the Peace Corps. 

69

After meeting with numerous victims, I met with the Peace 

Corps Director, Aaron Williams, in February. And I have a meeting 

with him again tomorrow. It appeared to me that he understood 

this issue and he was open to suggestions on how it could be solved 

and how Peace Corps victims could be protected overseas. He has 

taken some important steps toward reform. He’s hired a Peace 

Corps first victim advocate in May to help support volunteers who 

were sexually assault or physically assaulted. But it’s important for 

Congress to stand behind Director Williams and give him the 

power to change the culture in the Peace Corps beyond his tenure. 

That’s what the Kate Puzey Peace Corps Volunteer Protection Act 

2011 does. 

It has four main parts. It requires number one, the Peace Corps 

to follow best practices in the area of sexual assault, in the sexual 

assault field. Two, it sets up an Office of Victim Advocacy to help 

victims receive services. Three, it puts an advisory council in place 

to review the Peace Corps’ sexual assault policy and implementation. And four, it establishes new confidentiality requirements including a system of restricted and unrestricted reporting for victims. 

My amendment to the bill has some minor changes that do not 

change the substance of the bill. For example, we clarify the guidelines of the restricted and unrestricted reporting system and they 

are to be drawn up by the Peace Corps. The bill has strong support 

of the former Peace Corps victims and as the chairman has testified or has mentioned, several of them have testified before this 

committee. 

So, being supported by victims and survivors including the brave 

advocacy groups, First Response Action, also RAINN, supports this 

legislation. RAINN is the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization. And the National Peace Corps Association supports this 

legislation. 

We do have one of the victims who came and talked to me and 

others on this committee about her encounters in the Peace Corps 

with us today. Jess Smochek is in the audience and I want to 

thank her for being here and being supportive, and being, of 

course, at the Senate when the Senate was marking up this legislation. And I thank her, and all the other victims, who have testified 

and brought information to this committee. 

I also want to thank the 15 of my colleagues on the committee 

that co-sponsored the bill, the chairman, the ranking member, Ms. 

Bass, Ms. Buerkle, Mr. Burton, Mr. Chabot, Mr. Connolly, Mr. 

Deutch, Mr. Faleomavaega, Mr. Payne, Mr. Rivera, Mr. Rohrabacher, Ms. Schmidt, Mr. Sires, and Ms. Wilson. 

I’d also like to call the Peace Corps volunteers and thank them 

for what they do abroad. I have used the phrase that they are the 

American angels abroad. They actually are doing that. They are 

the best ambassadors we have for this nation. And they go off to 

remote corners of the world, far away from their families, and the 

conveniences of the United States and they go to help other people. 

And what a great service they do to protect the reputation of the 

United States and they are the best ambassadors we have for this 

country. 

70

And so for many years, it appears to me, that in this area of supporting them when they are assaulted, we have failed them and 

now it’s time for Congress to act and make sure that we right this 

wrong and protect our Peace Corps victims no matter where they 

are. 

Thank you, Madam Chairman, I yield back. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you for your leadership on this 

issue, Judge Poe. 

Do other members seek recognition? Ms. Wilson is recognized. 

Ms. WILSON OF FLORIDA. Thank you so much, Madam Chair, for 

this legislation and thank you, Judge Poe, and thank you, Ranking 

Member Berman. I sincerely appreciate your acceptance and support of the four amendments I submitted today. 

I think it is of the utmost importance that we do everything in 

our power to ensure the safety of Peace Corps volunteers, particularly when we are discussing crimes as serious as sexual assault. 

An infringement on one’s personhood is unforgivable and irreversible. An attack of that nature is accompanied by silent ghost victims. These victims will carry that with them for the rest of their 

lives. Unfortunately, many prospective volunteers do not fully realize the potential dangers that await them in their new service 

areas. 

Let me say this, I love the Peace Corps. It is essential. It is effective. And it should be expanded. And as an example of all that is 

right with American foreign policy. Let me also say that the bills 

passed here today will go a long way toward ensuring the safety 

of our nation’s youth who volunteer the best years of their lives. 

But we could go further. 

I wish to offer another amendment today that I could not garner 

sufficient support for its passage, but that’s okay. My amendment 

simply would have closed nations to the placement of Peace Corps 

members if they are repeatedly the largest perpetrators of sexual 

assault on our young men and women. Further, failing to prosecute 

reported assaults would lead to the barring of Peace Corps members as well. I’m not naive. I realize the message this would send 

to those nations affected. And that message needs to be sent. I 

refuse to stand by and do nothing. I refuse to watch as bad actors 

continue on in the very manner we are trying to address. But I 

promise it is an issue around which I will continue to fight. 

Thank you for allowing me to make this statement. And thank 

you, to the committee, for all of the wonderful work you have done. 

Let us stay vigilant. Let us stay strong. And let us stay secure. 

I yield back the balance of my time. 

Chairman ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you so much and I thank the 

gentlelady from Florida for her valuable contributions in her 

amendments to this bill. It has made it stronger, provided greater 

safeguards for our Peace Corps volunteers. Every one of her 

amendments improved the bill. And don’t give up on us yet. We’re 

still working on the other issues that remain unresolved. 

Do any other members seek recognition to make a statement on 

the bill? Seeing no additional hands up nor hearing additional requests to speak, I would like to thank all of our members for their 

cooperation. Just so arriving members are clear, the committee had 

already adopted the bills and bipartisan amendments sent to your 

71

offices earlier this week and concluded our formal consideration. So 

at this point I was just recognizing members who would like to 

make a statement, but feel free to put in your statement as part 

of the record. And thank all of you for your cooperation and with 

that, the committee stands adjourned. Thank you. 

[Whereupon, at 10:20 a.m., the committee was adjourned.] 

(73)

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