Archive - December 14, 2009

I think we have to view it as a victory, folks.  It’s the highest single year dollar-increase in 49 years.  In an actual and a symbolic sense, it can transform the Peace Corps. To help put it in perspective, it’s more than Peace Corps ever got in a single year since its founding, more than we got in the last seven years combined.  Director Williams is doing a magnificent job already, and with this 18% increase, he can do a whole lot especially if they streamline operations. I feel very proud and pleased with what we did and what I learned personally from all of you.  I had no experience in advocacy or lobbying and was thrown into this competitive environment.  Yes, we all wish we got the House mark (or $10 or $20 million more), but we didn’t. Failure would be if we just stopped trying.  This is nothing short of . . .

Several of  you have emailed me to ask ‘what’s the skinny on this Rajeev Goyal guy?’ To give  you a quick summary, over the last two years, Rajeev has been our indefatigable advocate of Peace Corps growth.  Without any formal training in lobbying or advocacy, guided by a team of advisors, he met with over 200 Congressional staff members to contest the anemic funding posture of Peace Corps.  Following a simple prescription of “squeeky wheel gets the grease,” he has organized 10,000 former volunteers, to pressure their elected representatives in a respectful, informed manner to vote for new funding to rejuvenate Peace Corps, which is half the size it was in 1966 despite 20 countries that want volunteers. He changed what was a marginal issue into a national news story, galvanizing the media (with the help of RPCV writers and journalists) into a watchdog for the President’s promise of doubling. Yesterday, as you know, the Senate passed a $60 million . . .

Yesterday the U.S. Senate  gave final congressional approval of a $400  budget to fund the Peace Corps in Fiscal Year 2010. President Obama is expected to sign the appropriations package into law shortly. The $400 million appropriation for Peace Corps is larger than Obama’s budget request, and is the result of work that Rajeev and others did to get the government to support the Peace Corps agency. Thank you, Rajeev! You’re the Little RPCV That Could! Watch Rajeev on Nightly News with Brian Williams http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/vp/29898341#29898341