Christopher Shays: “I just want to be here tonight to say that the Peace Corps changed my life in an extraordinary way, as it did my wife…”

“I just want to be here tonight to say that the Peace Corps changed my life in an extraordinary way, as it did my wife, but I get my greatest satisfaction in thinking about what volunteers have done through the course of the past 30 years to change the lives of so many people around the world. Joining with my colleague to just express the tremendous satisfaction I have in knowing that Peace Corps volunteers are not those fancy consultants, high priced consultants going to countries, staying for a month or two and writing a report, the thing about a Peace Corps volunteer is that they are actually living in the communities. They are riding the buses that the indigenous people ride, they are living in the same communities, in the huts that they live in, eating the food and speaking their language. While I am not here to criticize the 4-percent reduction in cuts to the Peace Corps, given the other cuts that are taking place throughout our budget, I am here to just caution my colleagues to make sure that we recognize that the Peace Corps is one of the most cost-effective organizations that you could possibly have. The real fact is that you cannot ask for an organization that has done more to help people in Third World countries than this organization begun by President Kennedy and continued by Presidents of both parties.”