David Dreier and David Price at Newsweek:
As millions of Americans emerge from the damage and devastation inflicted by Hurricane Beryl, which lashed the Texas Gulf Coast this month with terrifying winds and torrential rains, Congress is considering gutting one of the country’s most effective tools in its natural disaster response kit: national service.
The proposed cuts to AmeriCorps, the national service program that mobilizes tens of thousands of patriotic Americans annually in full-time service to the nation, defy logic and responsible federal budgeting. And we would know—we helped plan dozens of complex spending blueprints as members of the House of Representatives.
As lawmakers of rival parties, we often disagreed on whether and how much the federal government should fund a particular program. But there was never any debate between us on national service. Because there are no good arguments against it.
Over the last three decades, AmeriCorps members have devoted nearly 20 million back-breaking hours of full-time national service to communities affected by hundreds of federally declared and local disasters in all 50 states and territories. After Hurricane Katrina, AmeriCorps members immediately deployed with community and faith-based organizations to run shelters and food banks, clear debris, and repair or rebuild thousands of homes. When the towers collapsed in the September 11 terrorist attacks, AmeriCorps members were among the first to answer the call to serve by providing emergency assistance to the injured and serving as caseworkers to desperate family members searching for loved ones. When fires engulfed Maui; when tornadoes razed Joplin; when waters swallowed the Jersey Shore—AmeriCorps was there. AmeriCorps is always there when America needs it.
But that requires funding.