By Meghan Shea
Read this blog from The Corps Network’s Government Relations Team about recent updates from Washington and what they mean for the Service and Conservation Corps community.
Fiscal Year 2025 Appropriations
Before leaving Washington, DC, for October recess, Congress passed a Continuing Resolution (CR) that would extend current funding levels through December 20. Both chambers will return the week of November 11, after the election on November 5. When they return Congress will have a little over a month to pass all twelve Fiscal Year 2025 funding bills.
As a reminder, the current proposed House Labor, Health and Human Services Subcommittee funding bill, which funds the Department of Labor (DOL) and AmeriCorps, contains an 11% funding cut below its Fiscal Year 2024 enacted level. The bill, as written, would eliminate funding for AmeriCorps State and National, AmeriCorps NCCC, and the National Service Trust that funds the Education Awards. The bill would also eliminate funding for DOL’s Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act Youth Job Training and includes severe cuts for the Registered Apprenticeships program as well.
Appropriations Committee leaders in both chambers have shared that they want to pass Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations bills by the end of this year. Whether there will be an omnibus bill or a possible Continuing Resolution that sees us into January of 2025 will likely depend on the outcome of the November elections. Given the devastation left by Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, funding for a disaster supplemental will likely also be something Congress will address upon their return to Washington, DC. The White House has already sent the Congress $27.5 billion worth of supplemental disaster aid requests, dating back to October 2023. Those funding requests were for, amongst several others, responding to Guam’s Typhoon Mawar, the wildfires in Maui, and Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse.
American Climate Corps (ACC)
In July, the Biden Administration announced the launch of Energy Communities AmeriCorps, a project that will engage 150 AmeriCorps VISTA members in advancing locally designed economic development, workforce readiness, and environmental remediation plans in nine coal mining communities across the U.S. over the next three years. This initiative will invest nearly $8 million from federal agencies and philanthropic sources to help ensure a more just and prosperous future for the people who have fueled our nation’s growth. A press release from the White House can be found here.
Climate Week New York City is a yearly event that is focused on bringing together leaders from around the world to discuss climate action. During the week, the Biden Administration released a fact sheet focused on their progress on the American Climate Corps (ACC). This fact sheet contained the following announcements:
- The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development joined the ACC Interagency Initiative, becoming the eighth agency along with the original seven agencies.
- The Environmental Protection Agency and AmeriCorps are partnering on the new Environmental Justice Climate Corps. This program will put 250 ACC members to work over the next three years on providing technical assistance to community-based organizations in environmental justice communities. It will be run through the AmeriCorps VISTA program and they will begin accepting applications in early 2025.
- The ACC is establishing partnerships with state service commissions to increase the number of state climate corps and to also strengthen existing state climate corps programs. It included New Jersey, which also recently announced the creation of the New Jersey Climate Corps.
- There will be a virtual ACC Job Fair. It will be for current and past members and will have participants from the private sector, labor unions, the public sector, including federal agencies. There will be more details to come on this.
Promoting Service through AmeriCorps Act
In September, the co-chairs of the National Service Congressional Caucus – Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Chris Coons (D-DE) along with Representatives Garret Graves (R-LA) and Doris Matsui (D-CA) – introduced the Promoting Service through AmeriCorps (PSA) Act in both the House and Senate. This bipartisan bill would reauthorize AmeriCorps programs and funding through 2029. The PSA Act provides more opportunities to serve, expands member benefits to support recruitment, improves the member experience, strengthens post-service pathways to education and employment, and authorizes federal funding for the next 5 years. The full bill text can be found here. A section by section of the bill can be found here.