Fast Facts
If you want to be a maverick and write your own personal letter, these may help. Here's a link to finding your representatives. We also recommend that you contact the chairs of the Appropriations Committees in each house as well as the sub-committee chairs on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs.
Alternatively, you can use our letter generator, which grabs that information plus inserts references to your representatives' Peace Corps or appropriations committee background.
- Peace Corps is currently facing an $18 million budget shortfall. The shortfall is the result of three primary factors:
- Election year politics has caused Congress to defer passage of federal spending bills into late 2008 (or beyond);
- The rising cost of living worldwide and global food prices;
- And the plummeting value of the dollar against local currencies at Peace Corps posts throughout the world.
- This deficit is having a dramatic impact on the agency and the support it provides to volunteers.
- To manage the budget deficit, the agency has been forced to reduce spending at posts worldwide and cut out critical volunteer training and support.
- Posts are being forced to shorten the length of language and technical training for new volunteers and eliminate in-field support to volunteers including site visits for technical training and support.
- The result is Peace Corps is now inevitably sending volunteers equipped with fewer tools to underprepared sites, making it more difficult for volunteers to effectively serve their host communities.
- The situation is urgent and demands swift action so current and future volunteers can receive the basic training and support they need to maximize their effectiveness.
