The Trump administration wants to recruit more Peace Corps volunteers with fewer agency personnel, puzzling Democratic lawmakers

Updated at 4:50 p.m. ET Feb. 23

House and Senate Democrats are questioning how the Trump administration plans to reach its goal of more than doubling the number of Peace Corps volunteers while simultaneously slashing the agency’s workforce.

“These [recruitment] goals have been paired with significant staff reductions at headquarters and overseas posts over the past year, raising serious concerns about whether the Peace Corps can meet its statutory responsibilities and safeguard volunteers in the field,” the 21 lawmakers wrote in a Feb. 19 letter to agency leadership. 

The Peace Corps, which sends volunteers to assist communities across the globe, has publicized a goal to have 8,000 volunteers in service by Sept. 30, 2030. In comparison, the agency supported more than 3,000 volunteers and trainees in fiscal 2025. 

According to the letter, at the beginning of Trump’s second term, Peace Corps headquarters had about 950 employees. Since then, hundreds of them have left government under the deferred resignation program. And the Democratic lawmakers said that the agency’s union was notified in September 2025 that officials planned to lay off nearly 40 additional staffers to bring the total number of full-time workers to 575.  

Those layoffs were delayed by last year’s government shutdown and then temporarily barred by the legislation that ended the funding lapse. That moratorium on governmentwide reductions in force, however, expired on Feb. 13. 

The letter’s signees, led by Virginia Democrats Rep. James Walkinshaw and Sen. Tim Kaine, requested that the Peace Corps pause any planned staff cuts or workforce restructurings until officials complete an analysis to determine if the agency would still have the capacity to conduct required activities and protect volunteers around the world. 

Peace Corps officials, however, said that they've already completed a review of the agency's operational structure.

"The Peace Corps believes that reorganization is critical to strengthening the agency’s effectiveness, sustainability and ability to deliver on its mission by reducing duplication and fragmentation, improving efficiency, streamlining decision-making and building the capacity to support anticipated volunteer growth, while retaining the functions that protect the health and safety of today’s volunteers," the agency said in a statement to Government Executive.

Government Executive previously reported that the agency planned to shed half of its domestic staff. At the time, employees reported that recruiting efforts, training programs as well as security and health services for deployed volunteers would struggle to continue due to the workforce reductions.

This story has been updated with a statement from the Peace Corps