In an effort to start again with the volunteer organization that began during Clinton’s presidency, the Trump administration put about 75% of full-time AmeriCorps workers on administrative leave on Wednesday, according to HeadlinesForever Digital.
An spokesperson from the administration confirmed to HeadlinesForever Digital on Thursday that 535 full-time AmeriCorps staffers were placed on leave out of the agency’s 700 staff.
Prior to the Trump administration putting the agency’s full-time employees on leave on Wednesday, Fox Digital learned, volunteers with AmeriCorps’ National Civilian Community Corps were immediately removed from their positions. This program caters to youths aged 18–26 by providing them with opportunities to volunteer. There have been cancellations totaling over $250 million in contracts with AmeriCorps.
The administrative official has stated that AmeriCorps will likely continue to exist, but that operations would essentially begin over.
As a volunteer government arm to assist communities around the country, the AmeriCorps National Service Program was established in 1993, during the first year of President Bill Clinton’s administration.
According to a recent report by the House Higher Education and Workforce Development Subcommittee, the agency has been receiving around $1 billion in public cash annually, despite failing eight consecutive audits over the last decade.
In a statement made in December 2024, Republican Utah Rep. Burgess Owens, who was chair of the House panel, expressed his regret about AmeriCorps’ lengthy track record of misusing government funds.
“AmeriCorps is entrusted with over $1 billion of taxpayer funds every year, with the result of failure of eight consecutive audits,” said he. “The ‘Management problems’ study, published in 2023 by the AmeriCorps Inspector General, outlines the substantial problems that AmeriCorps is confronted with. Among these is the inability to identify instances of fraud. As of this now, we don’t have a clue as to when AmeriCorps may expect another clean audit. Despite AmeriCorps’ claims that it handled 20 recommendations in the previous year, there are still 78 outstanding in this year’s audit.
Breaking NewsForever Digital looked over AmeriCorp’s budgets from the past few years and found that the company had $1,312,806 for the fiscal year of 2023 and $1,262,806 for the fiscal year of 2024, with the same amount going toward wages and costs. For FY2025, the Biden administration has requested a budget of $1,342,093,000.
According to the agency’s annual management report for fiscal year 2024, its total assets were $3.7 billion, with more than $1.5 billion invested.
According to Fox Digital’s analysis of the organization’s 2024 annual management report, “advancing racial and economic equity” was listed as one of the agency’s key goals, among diversity, equity, inclusion, and climate change programs.
“AmeriCorps has a decades-long commitment to advancing racial and economic equity through national service and volunteering,” according to the study. All Americans will have more opportunities made available to them as a result of these initiatives. In order to ensure that AmeriCorps members and volunteers represent the variety of the American people and the communities they serve, racial and economic fairness will be at the center of all efforts.
Even though the agency’s initiatives are “well-intentioned,” Owens stated in 2024 that taxpayers shouldn’t keep paying for them and pushed for the office to be cut from the Department of Government Efficiency.
“It makes no sense to expand this agency or give it more money when it continuously fails to meet basic accountability standards,” according to him. Year after year, AmeriCorps’ officials promise to enact improvements whenever they appear before this Committee, yet nothing ever changes. No amount of nagging about AmeriCorps’s need to update and revamp will make it happen until we admit the program’s foundational assumption is incorrect. We must now face the reality that this initiative has been unsuccessful and requires either a whole replacement or a radical redesign. Doge ought to be the one to chop it.