[House Hearing, 112 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office]
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/
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
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Washington, DC 20402-0001
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida, Chairman
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey HOWARD L. BERMAN, California
DAN BURTON, Indiana GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York
ELTON GALLEGLY, California ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American
DANA ROHRABACHER, California Samoa
DONALD A. MANZULLO, Illinois DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey
EDWARD R. ROYCE, California BRAD SHERMAN, California
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York
RON PAUL, Texas GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York
MIKE PENCE, Indiana RUSS CARNAHAN, Missouri
JOE WILSON, South Carolina ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey
CONNIE MACK, Florida GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia
JEFF FORTENBERRY, Nebraska THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida
MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas DENNIS CARDOZA, California
TED POE, Texas BEN CHANDLER, Kentucky
GUS M. BILIRAKIS, Florida BRIAN HIGGINS, New York
JEAN SCHMIDT, Ohio ALLYSON SCHWARTZ, Pennsylvania
BILL JOHNSON, Ohio CHRISTOPHER S. MURPHY, Connecticut
DAVID RIVERA, Florida FREDERICA WILSON, Florida
MIKE KELLY, Pennsylvania KAREN BASS, California
TIM GRIFFIN, Arkansas WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts
TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island
JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina
ANN MARIE BUERKLE, New York
RENEE ELLMERS, North Carolina
VACANT
Yleem D.S. Poblete, Staff Director
Richard J. Kessler, Democratic Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
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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
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................................ 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 Texas178 deg............................... 38
Amendment to the amendment in the nature of a substitute to
H.R. 2377 offered by the Honorable Ted Poe179 deg... 60
Amendments to the amendment in the nature of a substitute to
H.R. 2337 offered by the Honorable Frederica
Wilson30 deg........................................ 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
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 Ros-
Lehtinen (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 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:]
H.R. 2699
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Ros-Lehtinen ANS to H.R. 2699
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]>
Wilson amendment to the ANS
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
H.R. 2337
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
ANS to H.R. 2337--Poe
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Poe Amendment to the ANS to H.R. 2337
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT
Wilson three ANS to H.R. 2337
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
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
to 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.
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.
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.
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 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.]
A P P E N D I X
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Material Submitted for the Hearing Record Notice
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
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