Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), a former Peace Corps volunteer and the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps, and Narcotics Affairs, today announced he will convene a subcommittee hearing entitled "Enhancing the Peace Corps Experience S 732, The Peace Corps Volunteer Empowerment Act."  The hearing will focus on legislation Dodd introduced in March that would encourage more input from current and returned volunteers in decision making, bring the Peace Corps into the digital age with regard to email and websites for volunteers in-country and eliminates certain barriers, including current medical screening practices which may discourage older individuals and minorities from becoming Peace Corps volunteers. Sen. Dodd served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic from 1966-1968 in the rural village of Moncion, near the Haitian border.   He is the only serving United States Senator to have served as a volunteer in the Peace Corps.