On September 9th, the House Appropriations Committee passed their version of the FY26 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies spending bill in a party-line vote. The Labor-HHS Subcommittee had met to mark up the bill a week before, on September 2nd.
The funding package recommends $642.95 million for the Corporation for National and Community Service, which is a cut of $619 million – or 49% – below FY25 enacted levels.
While the bill includes level funding for RSVP ($55.1 million) and the Volunteer Generation Fund ($8.6 million), the bill drastically slashes funding for the other AmeriCorps programs. Funding for AmeriCorps State and National, NCCC, VISTA, the Foster Grandparents, Senior Companions, and State Commission Administration Grants are roughly cut in half.
The House bill cuts the National Service Trust by more than 75%, providing just $40 million for AmeriCorps education awards. The bill also cuts funding for the agency’s salaries and expenses by $30 million, which undermines the agency’s efforts to modernize grant and member management systems and implement new internal financial controls.
The Republican summaries indicate that the House Committee is recommending that AmeriCorps be renamed the America First Corps “to reflect the agency’s core mission of funding organizations that place Americans at the center of service initiatives.” It also states that that America250 activities and projects should be prioritized through the National Days of Service program.
With just days until the end of FY25, Congress is focused on finding a short-term funding solution to avoid a government shutdown. It is still unclear when either the House or Senate will consider their differing Labor-HHS-Education funding bills on the floor, or how they will reconcile the billions of dollars of differences between their bills. As you will recall, the Senate Labor-HHS bill – approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee in late July – includes near level funding for AmeriCorps.
AmeriCorps Agency Budget
| Accounts | FY25 Enacted | FY26 President’s Budget | FY26 Senate Mark | FY26 House Mark |
| Program Operating Expenses | $975.53 M | $32.43 M | $975.53 M | $524.73 M |
| AmeriCorps State and National | $557.1 M | $2.45 M | $557.1 M | $278.5 M |
| AmeriCorps VISTA | $103.29 M | $7.13 M | $103.29 M | $51.6 M |
| AmeriCorps NCCC | $37.73 M | $20.92 M | $37.73 M | $20.92 M |
| AmeriCorps Foster Grandparent Program | $125.36 M | $122 K | $125.36 M | $62.68 M |
| AmeriCorps Senior Companion Program | $56.45 M | $122 K | $56.45 M | $28.23 M |
| AmeriCorps RSVP | $55.11 M | $122 K | $55.11 M | $55.11 M |
| State Commission Support Grants | $19.54 M | $1.56 M | $19.54 M | $9.76 M |
| Days of Service | $6.15 M | $0 | $6.15 M | $6.15 M |
| Volunteer Generation Fund | $8.56 M | $0 | $8.56 M | $8.56 M |
| Evaluation | $6.25 M | $0 | $6.25 M | $3.13 M |
| National Service Trust | $180 M | $0 | $180 M | $40 M |
| Salaries and Expenses | $99.69 M | $69.63 M | $89.69 M | $69.63 M |
| Office of Inspector General | $7.6 M | $5.62 M | $7.6 M | $8.6 M |
| Agency Total | $1.262 B | $107.7 M | $1.252 B | $642.95 M |
Additional Resources:
Voices for National Service’s statement on the House’s proposed Labor-HHS bill
Full bill text
Republican’s bill summary
Democrat’s bill summary