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Dear National Service Colleagues:
Earlier today, the full House Appropriations Committee passed a $596.5 billion spending bill for fiscal year 2007 that includes $822.9 million for the Corporation for National and Community Service and its programs. That is the same figure recommended last Wednesday by the Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee. (To see my June 7 message, which contains the subcommittee’s recommended funding levels by program, click here.) The bill is expected to go to the full House of Representatives next week.
Click here to view a copy of the committee report accompanying the House bill, which includes additional information regarding the Corporation’s use of the recommended funding.
During today's mark up of the bill, Rep. David E. Price (D-NC), a co-founder of the House National Service Caucus, expressed concern about the AmeriCorps funding levels. Specifically, he mentioned the lowered baseline for AmeriCorps*State and National for FY2007, and the potential issues going forward in FY2008. Subcommittee Chairman Regula (R-OH) responded to Rep. Price that he would work with him on this issue.
Also today, the House and the Senate (action is currently pending on the Senate floor as of 5:30 p.m.) are completing action on a $94.5 billion fiscal year 2006 emergency supplemental appropriations bill to fund activities related to the war on terror and hurricane recovery. The bill contains $10 million for the AmeriCorps*NCCC program to continue its important work in helping to rebuild the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast. Specifically, the bill stipulates that the funds will remain available until Sept. 30, 2007, and are to be used “for necessary expenses related to the consequences of Hurricane Katrina and other hurricanes of the 2005 season.”
In addition, the supplemental bill includes a provision naming the AmeriCorps Education Award the Segal AmeriCorps Education Award, in honor of Eli Segal, the first CEO of the Corporation, who passed away earlier this year.
We look forward to discussing these developments with you later this week at the AmeriCorps Grantee Meeting and at the National Conference on Volunteering and Service in Seattle. We also plan to hold conference calls on many of these issues when we arrive back in Washington at the end of the month.
As always, we will keep you updated on any new developments.
Sincerely,
David Eisner
Chief Executive Officer
Corporation for National and Community Service
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