Peace Corps Charter for the 21st Century Act

Bill: 108-hr-250
Sponsor: Rep. Farr, Sam [D-CA-17]
Introduced: 2003-01-08 in the House
Policy area: International Affairs
Subjects: AIDS (Disease)
Armed Forces and National Security
Arts, Culture, Religion
Audiovisual education
Authorization
Commerce
Community organization
Congress
Congress and foreign policy
Congressional oversight
Congressional reporting requirements
Corporation directors
Cost accounting
Cultural relations
Economics and Public Finance
Education
Elementary and secondary education
Elementary education
Employee training
Ethnic relations
Federal advisory bodies
Finance and Financial Sector
Geography and mapping
Government Operations and Politics
Grants-in-aid
Health
Health education
Higher education
Human immunodeficiency viruses
International education
Islamic countries
Labor and Employment
Language and languages
Libraries
Malaria
Minorities
Muslims
National service
Nongovernmental organizations
Nonprofit organizations
Occupational health and safety
Overhead costs
Peace Corps
Preventive medicine
Recruiting of employees
Religion
Salaries
Scholarships
Secondary education
Security measures
Severance pay
Social Welfare
Student loan funds
Transfer of employees
Tuberculosis
Urban affairs
Volunteer workers
World health

Summary:
action_date: 2003-01-08
text: Peace Corps Charter for the 21st Century Act - Amends the Peace Corps Act to require all recruiting of volunteers to be carried out under the direction of the Director of the Peace Corps. Conditions the President's authority to detail or assign Peace Corps volunteers to certain Federal and State agencies and other entities upon a determination that such a detail or assignment does not contradict the standing of such volunteers as being independent from foreign policy-making and intelligence collection.
Requires the Director of the Peace Corps to report to Congress on: (1) efforts undertaken to improve coordination of Peace Corps activities with activities of international voluntary service organizations, such as the United Nations (UN) volunteer program, and of host country voluntary service organizations; (2) any major new Peace Corps initiatives under review for the upcoming fiscal year or undertaken in the previous fiscal year; (3) the Peace Corp's plans for doubling the number of volunteers from 2002; (4) any standard or special security procedures for any country in which the Peace Corps operates programs or is considering doing so, including an assessment whether security conditions would be enhanced by colocating volunteers with international or local nongovernmental organizations or placing multiple volunteers in one location; (5) student loan forgiveness programs currently available to Peace Corps volunteers; and (6) initiatives the Peace Corps intends to pursue with eligible countries where the presence of volunteers would facilitate a greater understanding that there exists a universe of commonly shared human values and aspirations.
Requires the Director to develop a training program for all Peace Corps volunteers in the education, prevention, and treatment of infectious diseases.
Increases Peace Corps volunteer readjustment allowances from $125 to $275 a month.
Establishes a program to award grants to private nonprofit corporations to enable returned Peace Corps volunteers to use their knowledge and expertise to develop and carry out programs and projects that promote the goals of the Peace Corps.

Legislative actions:
action_date: 2003-01-08
text: Referred to the House Committee on International Relations.
action_date: 2003-01-08
text: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR E57-58)
action_date: 2003-01-08
text: Introduced in House
action_date: 2003-01-08
text: Introduced in House