A group of attorneys general announced restoration of additional funds for AmeriCorps.
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) agreed to release moer than $184 million in funding that AmeriCorps plans to award to service programs in Delaware and across the country. The attempted cuts included more than $750,000 in funds for AmeriCorps programs in Delaware.
The Trump Administration claimed it suspended the programs while it determined their effectiveness. The money had been appropriated by Congress. The cuts also came as Elon Musk's DOGE program was underway.
“The president’s inexplicable vendetta against kids and literacy ends exactly as it started: a bizarre, unjustifiable, and illegal spectacle,” said Delaware Attorney General Jennings. “Now these funds can return to the classrooms and communities where they belong.”
On April 29, Jennings served as a leader in a coalition challenging the administration’s plans to eliminate nearly 90 percent of AmeriCorps’ workforce, cancel its contracts, and close $400 million worth of AmeriCorps-supported programs.
In June, federal court granted a preliminary injunction that reinstated hundreds of AmeriCorps programs that were cancelled and barred AmeriCorps from making similar cuts without formal rulemaking. In Delaware, the injunction preserved more than $1 million in funding for nine organizations:
- Reading Assist ($305,370)
- Children’s Beach House ($283,500)
- WeProsper Family Organization ($132,300)
- Leading Youth Through Empowerment ($130,941)
- Literacy Volunteers Serving Adults Northern Delaware ($129,330)
- West End Neighborhood House ($120,879)
- TeenSHARP ($49,140)
- Family Promise of Northern New Castle County ($40,721)
- Spur Impact Association ($40,720)
Although AmeriCorps was forced to comply with that order, OMB later tried to withhold over $184 million in funding for outstanding AmeriCorps service programs, notably including the Delaware Foster Grandparents Program, which connects senior citizens with special needs children in need of tutoring or mentoring.
The coalition filed an amended lawsuit in July that added OMB as a defendant, filing a subsequent motion for a preliminary injunction on August 8.
On the deadline for a response, the Trump administration told the court that OMB would release all withheld AmeriCorps funds.
Leaders in the legal action were Delaware, Maryland, California, and Colorado. They were joined by the attorneys general of Arizona, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Hawai‛i, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin, and the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
Jennings stated that the lawsuits, including her lawsuit to save AmeriCorps, has preserved more than $215 million for Delaware since January 1 of this year.
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.