Peace Corps Delivers for America. Now We Must Deliver for Peace Corps.
News is emerging today that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is ordering a weakening of Peace Corps staff and operations that puts at risk the national service program’s ability to adequately support the thousands of Americans currently serving as Peace Corps Volunteers in 60 nations worldwide. The National Peace Corps Association is alarmed at initial reports that DOGE is demanding a drastic removal of Peace Corps staff vital to the recruitment and preparation of Peace Corps volunteers, and to supporting them as they work in often remote towns and villages to build a better, stronger and safer America and world.
What We Know
NPCA is learning that DOGE has ordered such deep removals of staff that Peace Corps will be hampered in its ability to recruit and select applicants who can be well prepared as Peace Corps Volunteers. Details are still emerging about DOGE directives that will hinder Peace Corps’ ability to keep Volunteers fully informed, supported and effective in their assignments abroad. NPCA believes that DOGE’s orders underscore the haste of its recent scan of Peace Corps operations and raise questions about the depth of its information and awareness of the efficiency with Peace Corps already operates, and as the agency continues to rebuild to pre-pandemic levels.
Peace Corps has affirmed in recent days that it “will continue to recruit, place, and train volunteers, and remain committed to supporting their health, safety and security, and effective service.” This objective will be complicated by the cuts to Peace Corps staff communicated today.
NPCA’s Concern
NPCA and the nationwide community of Peace Corps’ supporters are alarmed at any proposal to weaken the functions vital to our serving Volunteers: their selection, training, and support in the field. Peace Corps has significantly reduced its U.S. and host country personnel in recent years due to Congress’s inability to maintain the agency’s appropriation at adequate levels. Indeed, Peace Corps is—uniquely—hampered by the current federal hiring freeze. This is because, unlike typical federal agencies, Peace Corps is structured to avoid entrenched bureaucratization by the five-year employee term limits set at its founding. NPCA’s concern now deepens as an already lean agency will be forced to sacrifice services for Peace Corps Volunteers who sacrifice so much for their country and service work.
America Must Respond—In Congress
As Congress prepares to review President Trump’s budget proposals for this year and next, our representatives must review these still-emerging DOGE directives to ensure that Peace Corps can fully support our Volunteers abroad. Peace Corps’ hundreds of thousands of former volunteers, family members and community supporters nationwide must reach out to our senators and representatives—especially those who are in a position to engage DOGE. We and they must remind America’s policymakers of Peace Corps Volunteers’ unique value in strengthening American security and building a safer world:
- Peace Corps Volunteers strive every day to increase opportunities and reduce the impact of global issues, such as impoverishment and disease, that have contributed to the displacement of more than 120 million people (UNHCR 2024).
- Peace Corps Volunteers bring the person-to-person connection with America and its values that promote America’s models of a humane, democratic community worldwide. Volunteers do so in remote locations where the State Department and USAID have not had a presence. This deep engagement is vital to counter the authoritarian visions for international relations promoted by powers such as China and Russia.
- Because they are volunteers, receiving only living allowances rather than salaries, Peace Corps Volunteers are America’s least expensive means of projecting influence, and building good will, abroad.
Americans must ally with our representatives in Congress to clarify, to policymakers, misunderstandings of Peace Corps and its role that may have shaped the emerging DOGE directives:
- In contrast to typical government agencies, Peace Corps staff are not career employees. Peace Corps’ structure by law bars the creation of a permanent bureaucracy of career staff—a provision that has set Peace Corps apart from other government departments since its creation.
- Peace Corps Volunteers’ projects generally do not depend on Americans’ tax dollars, but are joint projects with local communities and governments.
- A DOGE weakening of Peace Corps will lessen the ability of countless American families and communities to contribute to America’s security and influence through their daily support for their Peace Corps Volunteers serving abroad.
Finally, the nation that benefits most from Peace Corps’ service is the United States. Peace Corps Volunteers build appreciation for America among partners abroad—and bring home experience and skills—that for decades have strengthened America’s diplomacy, education, domestic and international business, and national security. Many nations–including allies and some rivals–have tried to emulate the Peace Corps template for building friendships, but none with the impact and effectiveness of Peace Corps 64 years after its founding under President John F. Kennedy. America is better, stronger and safer with the Peace Corps. Our task now is to ally with our representatives in Congress to protect this national asset at a time when it is urgently needed.
As DOGE cuts continue to impact the government, we encourage our community to KEEP GOING. Our advocacy efforts are making a difference. Through the collective actions of our community, we can confirm:
- In the past ten weeks, we generated roughly 5,000 emails and phone calls to Congress, urging support for Peace Corps and other international assistance/national service programs.
- In the past two months, we facilitated at least 90 activities — including local and virtual congressional office meetings, published op-eds and letters to the editor, letter-writing gatherings, and Peace Corps promotional events.
At NPCA, we reaffirm our commitment to Stand Up for Service. At this critical time, our message is simple:
- International cooperation and humanitarian assistance make our country stronger. Peace Corps strengthens America through an internationally recognized and emulated program that directly sharpens the skills and international competitiveness of America’s workforce.
- Peacebuilding through soft diplomacy makes our country safer. Through its mission of building intercultural understanding around the world, Peace Corps’ intercultural goals build friendships and mutual understanding, contributing directly to our country’s security.
- National Service makes our country more prosperous. Peace Corps Service unites our country, builds a skilled workforce, encourages entrepreneurship, and instills a patriotic sense of community service.
Take Action in three ways:
- Visit our Action Center here to contact your house representative and immediately ask them to sign the annual Peace Corps funding letter to increase Peace Corps’ appropriation. The deadline for them to sign is May 14! Follow this link to write your House Rep to encourage them to sign the letter.
- Register here for Peace Corps Connect 2025! We’re bringing the RPCV community together in Washington, DC for the most consequential gathering of RPCVS this decade. Regardless of whatever transpires between now and July, this will be an enormously important opportunity for this community.
- Donate here to Stand Up For Service. There’s no time to wait. We need your help to secure the future of the Peace Corps. Stand up for service and MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD! Your donation today ensures we can act swiftly and effectively.
The National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) is the nonprofit, nonpartisan organization of American citizens from our nation’s “Peace Corps community”—the nearly quarter-million Americans who have volunteered for this service abroad; the thousands more who serve each day; and the families, churches, communities and civic organizations that partner with and support our nation’s volunteers. (NPCA is separate from, and does not speak for, the Peace Corps as an agency.)