House and Senate Appropriations Committees Mark Up FY24 Spending Bills

On July 27, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved its Labor, Health and Human Service, Education Appropriations bill for fiscal year (FY) 2024. The bipartisan bill seeks an overall $224.4 billion for the federal agencies that are funded through the Labor-HHS Appropriations bill. Notably, the Senate’s bill protects funding for AmeriCorps programs.  

At $1.263 billion for the AmeriCorps agency, the Senate bill maintains funding at FY23 levels for all but one account. The National Service Trust Fund would be reduced by $50 million, down to $180 million. Voices for National Service is seeking clarity about whether this would meaningfully affect any AmeriCorps member positions. 

The Senate bill would increase the maximum Pell Grant by $250 for a total award of $7,645 for the 2024-25 school year. If adopted, it would trigger a comparable increase to the AmeriCorps Education Award in FY25. The Senate also included bill and report language that would boost opportunities to serve and help advance a few of Voices for National Service’s key policy recommendations. 

• The agency was granted greater authority to establish additional terms of service under 1,700 hours; this would permit the agency to create a 1,500-hour service term. 
• The Senate instructed the agency to report back to the Committee on changes they plan to make to matching requirements and fixed amount grants in efforts to improve fund utilization and to diminish unnecessary burden and financial risk for grantees. 
• The Committee expressed support for goals around alumni engagement, civic bridge building, outreach and recruitment, and urged the agency to do more in these areas. AmeriCorps is also encouraged to expand collaboration with the Department of Defense, the Selective Service System, Peace Corps, and the Office of Personnel Management to raise public awareness about military and national service opportunities. 

While the Senate is seeking funding for AmeriCorps that is $215 million below President Biden’s FY24 budget request, it is substantially more than the House’s proposal. On July 14, the House Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee marked up their FY24 spending bill, recommending $660.9 million for the national service agency in a dramatic 50% cut from current levels. Additionally, the House recommended eliminating all funding for the National Service Trust which funds AmeriCorps Education Awards. Nulling out the National Service Trust would disrupt operations and break the fundamental commitment that if you serve in AmeriCorps, you will earn funding to pay for college. While the House has not provided sufficient detail to fully assess the scope of its proposal’s negative impact, we can estimate that it would eliminate tens of thousands of AmeriCorps positions and wipe out nearly three decades of hard-fought progress. 

The House and Senate have taken very different approaches to the annual appropriations bills. The House Majority wants to cut more than $100 billion over last year’s spending levels, undermining the funding level agreement made through the enacted Fiscal Responsibility Act negotiated between Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and President Biden. Meanwhile in the Senate, appropriators have committed to a bipartisan process that makes full use of the tools allowed by the debt ceiling deal and regular process to write and pass the strongest funding bills possible, that have the broadest support in Congress. The House and Senate will have much to discuss to reconcile these bills and pass FY24 appropriations into law. 

Voices for National Service will continue our work with lawmakers, our members, and partners to see to the best outcome for AmeriCorps programs.

AMERICORPS AGENCY BUDGET 

Additional Resources:

• Voices’ Statement on the Senate FY24 Appropriations Bill  
• For all information on the Senate’s bill, please see here for the press release, summary of the bill, bill text, bill report, adopted amendments, and the list of Congressionally Directed Spending projects.  
• Voices’ Statement on the House FY24 Labor-HHS Appropriations Bill  
• For all information on the House’s bill, please see here for the bill summary and the markup’s bill text.