AmeriCorps funding is restored after states' lawsuit over cuts

People work at counters with boxes full of produce.

Photo / Courtesy Julia Breul AmeriCorps fellow Robyn Landes processes produce as part of an all-cohort day of service at the South Portland Food Cupboard.

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By Tina Fischer

The White House Office of Management and Budget has agreed to release more than $184 million in funding for AmeriCorps service programs across the country, in the face of a lawsuit filed by 23 attorneys general, including Maine’s Aaron Frey.

In July, Frey joined a coalition in filing an amended lawsuit — a follow up to the original suit filed in April — challenging OMB’s attempt to gut AmeriCorps programs. On the day the suit was to be heard in court, OMB agreed to release the funds.

“AmeriCorps represents some of the best of American values: service, community, and opportunity, and Maine would have been deprived of this important, congressionally-funded AmeriCorps programming had I not joined suit to enforce the law," Frey said.

Last year, Maine had approximately 2,200 AmeriCorps members and received $8.6 million in federal funding for operations that serve veterans, seniors and disaster victims, among others.

Back in April, Frey and the coalition challenged the administration’s plans to eliminate nearly 90% of AmeriCorps’ workforce, cancel its contracts, and close $400 million worth of programs.

File photo

Aaron Frey

In June, a preliminary injunction reinstated hundreds of AmeriCorps programs and barred AmeriCorps from making similar cuts without formal rulemaking. Despite the order, OMB continued to withhold over $184 million intended for outstanding service programs, including AmeriCorps seniors programs and programs funded with federal grants.

The coalition filed an amended lawsuit in July that added OMB as a defendant. On Aug. 8 Frey and the coalition filed a motion for a preliminary injunction, asking for an order to stop OMB from withholding the funds, and that predicated the settlement late last week.

AmeriCorps supports national and state community service programs by funding volunteers for organizations that address critical community needs.

Frey was joined in the lawsuit by the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawai'i, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin, as well as the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania.