Bush Suggests Aid Changes

President Bush last week said charities working with federal national-service programs need to show results or risk losing support.

President Bush also renewed his effort to encourage Americans to volunteer. “If you want to fight evil, find somebody to help,” Mr. Bush said in a visit to Bridgeport, Conn., to tour a community center. “And I’m prepared to help you find somebody to help.”

Mr. Bush asked Congress for a $290-million increase in fiscal 2003 for national-service programs run by the Corporation for National and Community Service, a quasi-governmental organization overseen by the White House. The funds would enable AmeriCorps, which helps young people serve with local and national nonprofit groups, and other programs to increase their members.

In addition to requesting the increase in funds, Mr. Bush asked Congress to require nonprofit organizations that participate in service programs to produce measurable results if they want to continue to receive federal money. “If a program is failing, we ought to be willing to blow the whistle on failure, just for the good of the people,” the president said. The Corporation for National and Community Service would draw up new standards with suggestions from participating nonprofit groups, according to his proposal.

Other key components of the president’s proposal include allowing state and local officials greater control in administering national-service programs, and helping religious groups play a larger role in the programs.

Leslie Lenkowsky, chief executive officer of the Corporation for National and Community Service, defended the president’s proposal last week before a Senate panel.

“We believe that the changes the president is calling for will produce more volunteers — and more help for nonprofit organizations — for each government dollar spent,” Mr. Lenkowsky told the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, which oversees the Corporation for National and Community Service.

Mr. Lenkowsky’s testimony is available on the Web at http://www.nationalservice.org/about/testimony
Oral040902.html. An outline of the president’s proposal is also on the Web at http://www.nationalservice.org/about/principles/
index.html.