Saturday, June 4, 2011

Status Update on Building Support for the Legislation

Note: We have been putting shorter, more frequent updates on the Facebook page

Over the past two weeks we have been working to finalize an agreement on the language in the bill, which is tentatively named the "Kate Puzey Peace Corps Victims & Whistleblower Protection Act of 2011". The Peace Corps has been invited to collaborate as we definitely hope they will fully support the legislation - although we have been surprised & disappointed by some of their actions during this period and will certainly not stand to have the bill gutted simply to attain their approval.

On the other hand, we have been very encouraged by some of the initial support that has been expressed from numerous congressional Representatives and Senators. Members of our coalition - including Harvard/Columbia Professor Karestan Koenen (a RPCV who is a rape survivor & testified at the hearing) recently met with a number of prominent congressional Members to discuss the bill. We also have been contacted by many more former and present Peace Corps Volunteers who have experienced similar problems and contacted us to support the legislation after the massive media coverage from the hearing.

We hope the bill will be finalized next week, and then introduced the week of June 13th - June17th. In symbolic memory of Kate, it would be great if we were able to pass it by what-would-have-been her 27th birthday on June 19th.

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