Washington, DC - On Monday, March 11, President Biden released his FY2025 budget request - demonstrating the Administration's commitment to reducing barriers to service for more young people and advancing innovations like the American Climate Corps.
Unfortunately, the proposed funding level is a substantial decrease from the President’s FY2024 budget request and would build upon impending cuts currently being navigated due to the FY2024 appropriations landscape. Compared to the Administration's FY2024 request, this budget represents an estimated cut of 10,000 additional opportunities to serve through AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps Seniors.
“While the Administration's budget request includes important milestones that Service Year Alliance has championed for years - like continuing to increase the living allowance and supporting more American Climate Corps members,” said Kristen Bennett, CEO of Service Year Alliance, ”it does not keep us on track to make service an integral part of growing up in America, where it brings people together across lines of difference, creates opportunities for young people, and solves our most pressing challenges at scale.”
Service Year Alliance applauds the Administration's budget for progress in several areas - like creating more opportunities for young people to address climate resilience through future expansion of the American Climate Corps and increasing the corps member living allowance to $13 per hour - a significant step toward the Administration’s goal of $15 per hour that reduces barriers to service years for more young Americans.
Every young person in America should have the opportunity to do a service year and it is time for monumental increases in investment and innovation to make this idea a reality. At Service Year Alliance, we are prepared to work with federal and state policymakers to unlock additional resources to be utilized for national service and with the service year field to pilot new innovations that enhance the service year experience, keeping our sights on the future of national service.
We call on President Biden to follow through on his commitments to expand access to national service opportunities for Americans of all backgrounds, and fuel civic renewal in communities across the country, including directing federal agencies to identify and utilize funding to immediately bring his vision for the American Climate Corps to life. We strongly urge Congress to work toward an appropriations package that exceeds the President’s budget request and continues the long legacy of bipartisan support for national service.
