President Clinton on Saturday proposed legislation to reauthorize the AmeriCorps national service program.
In his weekly radio address, Clinton said he wanted to "give more Americans the chance to serve" by improving and extending AmeriCorps into the next century.
"In community after community, AmeriCorps members have proved that service can help our most pressing social needs," Clinton said. "Citizen service must be at the heart of our efforts to prepare America for the 21st century."
Clinton's proposal would enable the Corporation for National Service, AmeriCorps' parent organization, to continue running its programs, which also include Learn and Serve America and the National Senior Service Corps, for the next five years.
In 1993, the Clinton administration created CNS in an effort to boost public service. AmeriCorps, often called the domestic Peace Corps, offers young people the chance to serve for one year in exchange for an education voucher of $4,725. Since 1993, more than 100,000 people have enrolled in the program, providing services ranging from housing renovation to child immunization to neighborhood policing.
From the beginning, however, AmeriCorps has been dogged by political controversy. Republican members of Congress opposed the creation of the program, and in 1996 the House voted to eliminate its funding (the funds were later restored in negotiations with the Senate). Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa., has repeatedly questioned whether AmeriCorps' benefits justify the program's costs.
Last year, the $215 million that AmeriCorps distributed in the form of grants to states and direct funding of projects went to 450 programs that operate at more than 1,000 sites and employ 24,000 AmeriCorps members.
"AmeriCorps brings people of every background together to work toward common goals," Clinton said. He urged Congress to make passage of legislation extending the program a priority next year.
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