Founded in 1961, the Peace Corps sends American volunteers to serve at the grassroots level in villages and towns across the globe to meet its three-point legislative mandate of promoting world peace and friendship by improving the lives of those they serve, helping others understand American culture, and sharing their experience with Americans back home. To date, more than 230,000 Peace Corps volunteers have served in 141 countries. As of the end of September 2017, 7,376 volunteers were serving in 65 nations. Jody Olsen is the current Director of the Peace Corps. In 2018, the 115 th Congress may consider the President's FY2019 funding request for the Peace Corps, changes to the Peace Corps authorization legislation, and related issues. This report will be updated as events warrant. On February 12, the Trump Administration issued its FY2019 budget request, including $396.2 million for the Peace Corps, a 3% cut from the FY2018 level. Congress has yet to enact a full FY2019 Peace Corps budget, and the agency is currently being funded at the FY2018 level through a continuing resolution that expires on December 7, 2018 ( P.L. 115-245 , Division C). Both the House and Senate committee-approved funding bills ( H.R. 6385 and S. 3108 ) for FY2019 would maintain Peace Corps funding at or above the FY2018 level. On May 23, 2017, the Trump Administration issued its FY2018 budget request, including $398.2 million for the Peace Corps, a cut of $11.8 million (-2.9%) from FY2017 enacted levels. According to the Administration, the request level would support a level of roughly 7,470 volunteers. Of the request, $15 million would potentially be used to support the relocation of the Peace Corps headquarters office. On July 19, 2017, the House Committee on Appropriations approved its version of the FY2018 State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs (SFOPS) appropriations ( H.R. 3362 ), providing $398.2 million for the Peace Corps, matching the Administration request. On September 7, 2017, the Senate Committee on Appropriations reported its version of the FY2018 SFOPS appropriations ( S. 1780 ), providing $410 million for the Peace Corps. On March 23, 2018, the Consolidated Appropriations, 2018 ( P.L. 115-141 ), was signed into law, providing $410 million for the Peace Corps, the same level as in FY2017, 3% above the Administration request of $398.2 million. Despite repeated efforts during the past decade, Congress has not enacted a new Peace Corps funding authorization. The last such Peace Corps authorization ( P.L. 106-30 ), approved in 1999, covered the years FY2000 to FY2003. Appropriations bills, however, routinely waive the requirement of authorization of appropriations for foreign aid programs, as the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2017 (§7022), did in the case of FY2017 unauthorized foreign aid program appropriations, including those for Peace Corps. The last time both House and Senate took action to authorize funding levels for the Peace Corps was in 2011. Neither bill, S. 1426 or H.R. 2583 , saw floor action. Sam Farr and Nick Castle Peace Corps Reform Act of 2018 . Legislation was introduced in both the House and Senate in the 115 th Congress to address a range of issues, most regarding volunteer health and safety. S. 2286 (the Nick Castle Peace Corps Reform Act of 2018), approved by the Senate March 13, 2018, and sent to the House Foreign Affairs Committee for further consideration, sought to improve volunteer health care by mandating implementation of inspector general recommendations and calling for a review of health care performance and delivery, among other requirements. Additional provisions would expand exceptions to the five-year rule for certain specialized fields, require consultation with Congress prior to opening or closing country programs, allow independent inspector general review of volunteer deaths, and ensure disclosure of crimes and risks to volunteers to Peace Corps applicants. A House bill, H.R. 2259 (the Sam Farr Peace Corps Enhancement Act), aimed to increase compensation benefits to disabled volunteers, inform applicants of crime and other risks, and mandate a report on volunteer access to health care benefits, among other items. The two bills were combined into the Sam Farr and Nick Castle Peace Corps Reform Act of 2018 ( H.R. 2259 ), which was approved by the House on July 10, 2018, and the Senate on September 24, 2018, and was signed into law on October 9, 2018 ( P.L. 115-256 ). The two Peace Corps directors who served during the Obama Administration undertook a wide range of reforms addressing operational concerns. Many of these reforms were drawn from the 64 recommendations made in a comprehensive assessment of agency operations and procedures conducted by the Peace Corps in response to a 2009 congressional directive. As a result of the comprehensive assessment, the Peace Corps took steps to rationalize its selection of host countries by establishing clear criteria for entry and a formal annual portfolio review of all countries in which it operates. It introduced a new monitoring and evaluation policy, including agency-wide standard indicators to allow reporting on common results across projects and countries. To strengthen volunteer medical care, Peace Corps hired new Regional Medical Officers and established a Health Quality Improvement Council. To increase staff effectiveness, the agency instituted a reorganization of country desk positions, a results-oriented performance appraisal program, and a revision of tour lengths to five years from the original 30 months. Of the many other reforms, several are particularly noteworthy Volunteer composition: generalists. The Peace Corps is a volunteer force composed largely of generalists. For much of its history, more than 80% of volunteers have been recent college graduates under the age of 30. While some have argued that the Peace Corps should alter its composition to meet the increasing needs of developing countries for educated specialists, the assessment team decided, with some exceptions noted below, to accept demographic reality and the constraints of career paths in the United States that would likely limit the number of older specialists available to it. In lieu of a specialist volunteer force, the assessment team suggested that Peace Corps focus more on doing what volunteers do best, what communities most want, and what volunteers can best be trained to do. It recommended Peace Corps take steps to improve the quality of the available volunteer force and its potential impact by adopting a so-called Focus in/Train up strategy in which a more narrow scope of work assignments is defined and technical training is strengthened in those areas. Up to 2010, volunteers worked in 50 different technical programs from which as many as 211 different project plans had been developed for each of which volunteers in that project had to be trained. Since the report was issued, Peace Corps has reduced the number by at least 24%. Further, the Peace Corps increased preservice training by about one week in FY2011 compared to FY2009. Volunteer composition: specialists. Both to meet needs of countries that might require greater expertise and experience and to best attract and utilize those volunteer applicants that possess a higher level of skills than the norm, the assessment team recommended use of the Peace Corps Response Program as an exception to the agency emphasis on generalists. The Peace Corps more than doubled the size of the Response Program and opened it to highly qualified individuals without previous Peace Corps experience. It has maintained the program's flexible time commitments (i.e., less than the usual 27 months for regular volunteers) and is using it in both regular Peace Corps countries as well as in countries where there is no standard Peace Corps presence. The Peace Corps established a Global Health Services Partnership under the Response Program to recruit physicians and nurses as adjunct faculty in medical and schools in developing countries—the first such volunteers were posted to Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda in July 2013. Volunteer recruitment. As part of the strategy's support for efforts to better meet developing country volunteer needs and attract the best volunteer candidates, the agency has sought to improve its recruitment and placement process and strengthen diversity outreach. A new online application platform was launched in 2012, and a new medical review management system was established to facilitate medical clearance. A new, simpler application form was introduced in 2014 that has greatly increased the number of applications (see below). "Third goal." In line with the assessment, the Peace Corps has sought to more fully and effectively address the so-called "third goal," the mandate that Peace Corps volunteers "help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans" (Peace Corps Act, P.L. 87-293, §2). This objective has always received less attention and funding (less than 0.4% of the FY2017 budget) than the other two goals of assisting development and promoting understanding of Americans to the people served, both aspects which focus on the agency's work abroad. "Third goal" activities include efforts by volunteers and former volunteers, sometimes forming country member groups, to convey their experiences through blogs, public talks, community service in the United States, and charitable fundraising. Most prominent among agency-sponsored activities is the Paul D. Coverdell World Wise Schools program, which connects volunteers with school classrooms throughout the United States. Although funding remains small, the agency established an Office of Third Goal and Returned Volunteer Services that has encouraged greater participation by volunteers and former volunteers. Annually, hundreds of returned volunteers speak at schools in their communities, and the number of schools participating in third goal activities rose by nearly 200% between FY2009 and FY2013. Partnerships . During the Obama Administration, Peace Corps made efforts to build new partnerships with international organizations, U.S. government agencies, and others. In September 2012, for example, the Peace Corps established its first global partnership with a corporation, Mondelez (formerly Kraft Foods), to support agriculture and community development.