Sec. 16. Oceania Peace Corps partnerships

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Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Director of the Peace Corps shall submit a report to Congress containing strategies for reasonably and safely expanding the number of Peace Corps volunteers in the Indo-Pacific countries of Oceania, with the goals of— expanding the presence of the Peace Corps to all currently feasible locations in the Indo-Pacific countries of Oceania; and working with regional and international partners of the United States to expand the presence of Peace Corps volunteers in low-income communities in the Indo-Pacific countries of Oceania in support of climate resilience initiatives. The report required under subsection

(a)shall— assess the factors contributing to the current absence of the Peace Corps and its volunteers in the Indo-Pacific countries of Oceania; examine potential remedies that include working with United States Government agencies and regional governments, including governments of United States allies— to increase the health infrastructure and medical evacuation capabilities of the Indo-Pacific countries of Oceania to better support the safety of Peace Corps volunteers while in those countries; to address physical safety concerns that have decreased the ability of the Peace Corps to operate in the Indo-Pacific countries of Oceania; and to increase transportation infrastructure in the Indo-Pacific countries of Oceania to better support the travel of Peace Corps volunteers and their access to necessary facilities; evaluate the potential to expand the deployment of Peace Corps Response volunteers to help the Indo-Pacific countries of Oceania address social, economic, and development needs of their communities that require specific professional expertise; and explore potential new operational models to address safety and security needs of Peace Corps volunteers in the Indo-Pacific countries of Oceania, including— changes to volunteer deployment durations; and scheduled redeployment of volunteers to regional or United States-based healthcare facilities for routine physical and behavioral health evaluation. In examining the potential to expand the presence of Peace Corps volunteers in low-income communities in the Indo-Pacific countries of Oceania under subsection (a)(2), the Director of the Peace Corps shall consider the development of initiatives described in paragraph (2). Initiatives described in this paragraph are volunteer initiatives that help the Indo-Pacific countries of Oceania address social, economic, and development needs of their communities, including by— addressing, through appropriate resilience-based interventions, the vulnerability that communities in the Indo-Pacific countries of Oceania face as result of extreme weather, severe environmental change, and other climate related trends; and improving, through smart infrastructure principles, access to transportation and connectivity infrastructure that will help address the economic and social challenges that communities in the Indo-Pacific countries of Oceania confront as a result of poor or nonexistent infrastructure. The term Indo-Pacific countries of Oceania means Fiji, Kiribati, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.