February 5, 2004 | Read Time: 1 minute
President Bush has signed into law a massive spending bill for the 2004 fiscal year that includes $441-million for the AmeriCorps national-service program — a 62-percent increase in support, the largest in AmeriCorps’s 11-year history. The measure covers spending in the fiscal year that began October 1.
The money will allow the Corporation for National and Community Service, the agency that runs AmeriCorps, to finance 75,000 volunteer positions this year, a record number of participants. Last year, the corporation reduced the number of positions it supported from 70,000 to 30,000, in part because the corporation approved thousands more volunteer positions than it had funds for in 2002. The corporation’s inspector general blamed poor accounting and mismanagement at the agency for the shortfall. In addition, advocates of national service said political fighting between Congress and the White House exacerbated the problem.
“After a tough year, AmeriCorps is now positioned to come back stronger than ever,” said David Eisner, chief executive of the corporation. “The year 2004 will be a historic one for national and community service.”
But despite the larger AmeriCorps budget, many nonprofit groups that rely on national-service members have said that their programs will be hampered by the lingering effects of the problems in 2003 (The Chronicle, January 22).
The AmeriCorps money was part of a $373-billion spending bill, which provides funds for most federal agencies. As part of the bill, the Corporation for National and Community Service has received $935-million, a 20-percent increase, and two groups supported by the corporation — the Points of Light Foundation and America’s Promise — will receive $9.9-million and $4.9-million respectively, or approximately the same as last year’s appropriations.
