In President Bush’s 2007 State of the Union Address, he called for “a volunteer Civilian Reserve Corp” in order to “ease the burden on the Armed Forces by allowing us to hire civilians.”

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has sent the $80 million "Reconstruction and Stabilization Civilian Management Act" to the floor for a vote, and the bill is currently working its way through the House Foreign Relations Committee.

The proposed civilian reserve corps would function much like the US military reserve. It’s designed to ease the burden on the Armed Forces by hiring civilians with critical skills to serve on missions abroad. President Bush said “it would give people across America who do not wear the uniform a chance to serve in the defining struggle of our time….”

John Herbst is the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization in the U.S. State Department, where the "civilian reserve corps" would be based.

He told Jerome a little about the office of stabilization and reconstruction.