Clinton Seeks 50% Hike in Ranks of Peace Corps

Calling the Peace Corps “one of the finest examples of citizen service,” President Clinton proposed Saturday to increase by 50% the number of participants the program sends abroad over the next two years.

“In a world where we’re more and more affected by what happens beyond our borders, we have to work harder to overcome the divisions that undermine the integrity and quality of life around the world,” Clinton said in his weekly radio address, which he taped while on vacation here.

To fund the expansion of the Peace Corps, the president is asking Congress to increase the program’s budget more than 20%, from $222 million in fiscal year 1998 to $270 million in fiscal 1999. This would put the Peace Corps on the path to having 10,000 workers by the year 2000--an increase of 50% over the current number.

The boost in the Peace Corps’ ranks would mean that more communities around the world would receive assistance in accessing clean water, adopting better practices for growing food, reducing the spread of AIDS and learning English and business skills.

The call to service seems to be getting an especially warm reception from people in their 20s. “The popular perception about Generation X--that young people are slackers with little motivation--is a myth,” said Peace Corps Director Mark D. Gearan.

“Last year more than 150,000 Americans contacted the Peace Corps expressing interest in serving as volunteers. This is an increase of more than 40% since 1994,” he added.

The Peace Corps, created by President Kennedy in 1961, now sends 6,500 Americans--predominantly young people but some older volunteers as well--to 85 countries around the world. The largest portion of them work as teachers.

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Clinton stressed that the Peace Corps returns long-term dividends, saying those who go out to help people in other nations often come back to serve their own country. Some examples of Peace Corps veterans who now are public servants are Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, who served in Iran from 1962 to 1964; Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), who served in the Dominican Republic from 1966 to 1968; Rep. Sam Farr (D-Carmel), who served in Colombia from 1964 to 1966; Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), who served in Fiji from 1968 to 1970; and Rep. James T. Walsh (R-N.Y.), who served in Nepal from 1970 to 1972.

Former volunteers who did not go into politics include Gordon Radley, president of Lucasfilms, who served in Malawi from 1968 to 1970, and Michael McCaskey, president and CEO of the Chicago Bears, who served in Ethiopia from 1965 to 1967.

“The Peace Corps is not a Democrat issue or a Republican issue,” said Shays. “People from South Africa to Uzbekistan want better lives for themselves and their children, they want access to safe drinking water, the know-how to start small businesses, and the Peace Corps allows Americans to help.”

Another prominent Republican with a strong connection to the Peace Corps is Sen. Paul Coverdell (R-Ga.), a former director of the organization.

In Clinton’s first radio address of the year, he said expanding the Peace Corps is part of his broader effort to “call forth a new spirit of citizen service here at home, as necessary to meet our new challenges and to fulfill our obligations both at home and abroad.”

The president created a domestic version of the Peace Corps, the AmeriCorps community service program, which has provided opportunities for more than 100,000 young Americans to work in their communities in exchange for money to pay for college or training.

AmeriCorps has been consistently attacked by Republicans in Congress, but in Clinton’s radio address he referred to the Peace Corps’ history of bipartisan support.

Clinton said that “giving more Americans opportunities to serve in humanity’s cause is both an opportunity and an obligation we should seize in 1998.”

In the GOP radio address, Rep. Constance A. Morella (R-Md.) said that in two years a “computer time bomb”--the inability of computers to process the date 2000--could render useless the nation’s government and commercial computer systems.

Morella said “critical government functions such as air traffic control systems, veterans benefits, Social Security and student loans, as well as the everyday conveniences of modern life, like home security systems, video recorders and elevators in high-rise buildings,” could be disrupted. She called on Clinton to urge federal agencies as well as businesses to join with Congress to search for a solution.

Shogren reported from the Virgin Islands, Rubin from Washington.