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HEART Act
On June 16, President Bush signed into law H.R. 6081, the Heroes Earnings Assistance and Relief Tax Act of 2008 (“the HEART Act”), making AmeriCorps more accessible to people with disabilities. The HEART Act contains a provision we have been seeking that excludes AmeriCorps benefits from being counted as income for purposes of eligibility for Supplemental Security Income (SSI). This extends the long-time AmeriCorps VISTA income disregard for SSI to all AmeriCorps positions. An SSI recipient who enrolls in AmeriCorps will no longer risk the loss of SSI benefits or eligibility as a result of participating in AmeriCorps. While the law does not extend to Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), it removes a significant barrier to participation for SSI recipients.
We are working with the Social Security Administration on implementation of the new law. Additional information and resources are posted here.
2009 Application Instructions
I am pleased to announce the publication of the 2009 AmeriCorps State and National Application Instructions. Please note that eGrants is not yet open for applications. We will notify you when the system is ready to accept applications in September, and issue any eGrants updates to the application instructions at that time.
Commissions will receive their instructions and the template they can use for their own competitions attached to the e-mail that includes this newsletter.
The application instructions for national grantees and states without commissions are on our web site here for easy access.
You will note the following changes in the application instructions this year:
- Revisions to the budget instructions reflecting the new single match in our appropriations language.
- Revisions in the MSY factors/percentages for the various terms of service. These factors now align with those used by the National Service Trust.
- New fields for Continuation Changes and Clarification Information.
- Subapplication fields are no longer required for National Direct and Professional Corps applicants. These applicants will submit one aggregated budget like the state commissions. This change is intended to align state and national applicants, and to ensure that the Corporation, as a federal agency, collects only the appropriate information. See the WBRS Transition page for more on the rationale for this change, and ideas for managing subgrantee budgets. We recognize that this is a significant change and expect to arrange conference calls to discuss further and answer your questions in the coming weeks.
If you have questions about the application instructions, please contact your Program Officer.
CCRAA Update
On September 27, 2007, President Bush signed the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007 (“CCRAA”) into law. In addition to other amendments to the Higher Education Act of 1965, the CCRAA created two new federal programs: a new Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and a new Income-Based Repayment plan (IBR) for the repayment of federal loans.
The Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program offers forgiveness for outstanding Federal Direct loans for those individuals who make 120 qualifying payments after October 1, 2007, while working full-time in a “public service job” as defined in the Act. The new Income-Based Repayment plan helps to make repaying education loans more affordable for low-income borrowers, such as an AmeriCorps member living on a stipend. IBR will become available in July, 2009.
On July 1, 2008, the Department of Education published a proposed rule that details the implementation of the Act. It is important to note that the proposed rule recognizes full time AmeriCorps service as equivalent to a public service job. For more information on the Department of Education’s rulemaking and comment process, please visit the Department of Education website. Public comments on this proposed rule, including comments on the inclusion of full-time AmeriCorps service as equivalent to a public service job, must be received by the Department of Education by August 15, 2008.
The Corporation has developed a set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) based on the Department of Education’s proposed rule. These FAQs are designed to answer a variety of basic questions that AmeriCorps members/alumni might have based upon their individual loan status. If you have additional questions on the impact of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program and/or the Income-Based Repayment plan for AmeriCorps members or alumni, please send your questions to: AmeriCorpsloanforgiveness@cns.gov. Once the final rule is published, the Corporation will update these FAQs with any pertinent information.
Additional Resources:
WBRS Transition Update
We are aware that some state commissions and national grantees are designing their own electronic systems to replace the member management capabilities of WBRS. Like WBRS, the new portal will allow programs to run reports and export them in Excel, HTML and PDF formats. However, the portal will not include a pipeline or bridge to other standalone systems.
Please keep in mind that the My AmeriCorps portal will be the system of record. You will be required to enroll, manage, and exit members through the portal. Designing your own systems that include these functions will lead to the need for double entry and is not advised.
Notice Anything Different?
We have changed the name of this periodic newsletter from the AmeriCorps State and National Policy Update to the AmeriCorps State and National Update. This reflects the purpose of the newsletter, which is to share information, rather than to serve as a policy document. When new policies are discussed in this publication, they will be clearly labeled as such.
AmeriCorps Week 2009!
AmeriCorps Week 2008 produced many powerful moments and no doubt some awesome photos.We are hoping you can share your best! Your AmeriCorps Week photos may be used in recruitment materials, the AmeriCorps website, the AmeriCorps slide show, and other materials for next year’s AmeriCorps Week, which is May 9-16. We’ve set up an FTP site to make it easy to share - click here for the instructions. Deadline is August 31st. Thank you for helping us tell the AmeriCorps story!
Dates to Remember
- August 15, 2008: Final day to comment on the CCRAA
- September 2008: Estimated date for publication of final rule
- September 22-24: State Commission ED Meeting and State Commissioner Institute in Washington, DC
- November 3, 2008: Admin-PDAT-Disability reports and applications due
- December 1, 2008: Grantee Progress Reports due
- January 13, 2009: State and National application deadline
- May 9-16, 2009: AmeriCorps Week
What Do You Think?
How can we make this periodic update more useful? Contact aborgstrom@cns.gov with your ideas.
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