We have some good news from Capitol Hill:
Yesterday afternoon, the subcommittee in the House that oversees funding for national service programs like AmeriCorps and YouthBuild voted to approve their draft budget for 2018. Thanks to your hard work and dedication, the committee's draft budget rejects President Trump’s proposal to eliminate AmeriCorps, and fully funds both AmeriCorps and YouthBuild at their FY17 levels.
The House is often where national service faces its biggest hurdles, and with the most serious threat to national service in a decade — this is a tremendous first step on the path to victory. Your calls, your emails, your tweets, and your petition signatures over the past sixth months were critical in securing a big win for the entire service year field. Congress heard the message loud and clear: the American people will not accept the elimination of national service.
This is only the beginning of a long process that will last through the Fall — the fight is not over until the full House and Senate act, and the FY18 budget becomes law. And we’ve still got work to do. Unfortunately, the State and Foreign Ops subcommittee that oversees funding for the Peace Corps accepted the President’s recommendation to cut $12 million. We’ll be working with allies in the House and the Senate to ensure that piece of the budget does not become a reality. We need your help to keep up the pressure for the remainder of the budget process, and that starts today.
On behalf of the entire service year community: Thank you.
