Sponsors (7)
Official title: Establish an AmeriCorps Administration to carry out the national and volunteer service programs, to expand participation in such programs, and for other purposes.
Introduced March 12, 2026 by John F. Reed · Last progress March 12, 2026
The bill aims to greatly expand and better fund national service—boosting pay, benefits, and access for young people and increasing administrative clarity—but does so by concentrating authority, creating transition and compliance costs, and significantly increasing federal spending with attendant risks to slot availability and program sustainability if appropriations or nonfederal support fall short.
Young adults, students, and low-income individuals will have access to far more national service opportunities as the bill sets a goal of 1,000,000 participants per year by 2036 and requires expansion planning and outreach.
Service participants (students and young adults) will get stronger financial support: higher living allowances/stipends, educational awards tied to average public tuition, and exclusion of certain awards and loan discharges from taxable income, increasing their after-tax resources for living and education.
Federal agencies, grantees, and Congress will gain clearer governance, statutory definitions, and planning requirements through renaming to the AmeriCorps Administration, defined leadership (Director), standardized definitions, and multi‑year reporting, improving legal clarity and accountability.
Taxpayers and federal budget makers will face substantially higher costs and reduced federal revenue because expansion targets, higher stipends/awards, and multiple tax exclusions increase annual appropriations needs and lower taxable income.
Prospective participants and nonprofits risk fewer funded service slots if Congress does not appropriate enough money, because higher per-participant caps, new stipend levels, and appropriations‑linked rules can increase per‑slot costs or freeze baseline participant levels.
Nonprofits, state partners, and the public may see reduced independent oversight and increased politicization as Board authority is narrowed, the Board becomes advisory and smaller, the Director gains discretion and cabinet-level influence, and appointment power concentrates among political leaders.
Based on analysis of 32 sections of legislative text.
Reorganizes the national service agency into an AmeriCorps Administration, raises stipend/grant caps, sets a goal to expand to 1,000,000 participants by 2036, and makes service awards and stipends tax‑exempt.
Expands, reorganizes, and finances the federal national service system. The bill renames and reclassifies the Corporation for National and Community Service as the AmeriCorps Administration (an executive department), creates a Director post, shrinks the oversight board to an advisory board, and sets a statutory 10-year goal to reach up to 1,000,000 national service participants by 2036 with planning and annual position targets. It raises living-allowance and grant caps for participants and programs, adds appropriations‑limited rules tying increases to available funding, changes how the education award amount is calculated, creates new outreach and youth-notification duties, and provides tax exclusions for service awards and stipends.