WASHINGTON, May 15 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, alongside Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-Va.), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Education and Workforce, and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee, today sent a letter to the Interim Agency Head of AmeriCorps calling for the immediate reversal of layoffs and grant terminations that have debilitated the agency’s core functions and run counter to its longstanding, bipartisan support in Congress.
“While a recent court order instituted a 14 day temporary restraining order on staff reductions at AmeriCorps, the damage of firing staff and eliminating $400 million in grants has already been felt across the country,” wrote Sanders, Murray, Baldwin, Scott and DeLauro. “The grant terminations and potential issues awarding fiscal year 2025 grant funding will have a catastrophic impact on the ability of AmeriCorps members to carry out work in communities all over the country — responding to natural disasters, serving as classroom teachers, providing tutoring services, and helping build housing in rural communities.”
Late last month, President Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE illegally terminated over a thousand AmeriCorps grants to states, nonprofits, and faith-based organizations across the country – totaling nearly $400 million, or roughly 41% of the agency’s grant funding. Grantees were not given statutorily required notices before these grants were terminated. The cuts are already seriously impacting communities where AmeriCorps projects were ongoing as well as their selfless members and volunteers.
Last year, nearly 200,000 AmeriCorps volunteers prepared today’s students for tomorrow’s jobs, connected veterans to services, fought the opioid epidemic, helped seniors live independently, rebuilt communities after disasters and led conservation efforts nationwide.
“We urge the swift reversal of the termination of NCCC members’ service terms so that they can get back to helping communities,” concluded the lawmakers. “These illegal grant terminations attempt to supersede congressional intent at the expense of communities in need of crucial services. More than 1,000 programs will be forced to close and over 32,000 AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers will be released from their service terms early… Further, by laying off nearly the entire agency staff, AmeriCorps is violating the law.”
Read the full letter here.
