Sponsors (2)
Introduced September 17, 2025 by James Varni Panetta · Last progress September 17, 2025
The bill substantially expands federal investments and programs to boost civic education, national service, and pathways into public and military service—improving access, training, and hiring efficiency for many young people and government roles—while creating meaningful fiscal costs, privacy and equity risks, potential federal influence over local curricula, and concerns about oversight, involuntary mobilization, and hiring fairness.
Students, teachers, and schools — Federal grants, funded teacher training, development of evidence-based civics curricula, and a new Service‑Learning Fund (authorized at large annual levels) expand high-quality civic instruction and hands-on service-learning opportunities.
Students, recent graduates, and young adults — A centralized Service Platform, interagency council, a Federal Fellowship & Scholarship Center, paid internships, and clearer noncompetitive hiring pathways make it easier to discover, apply for, and transition into federal, national, and military service.
Young adults and national service participants — Expanded education awards, set minimum stipends, completion awards, and supports (career counseling, transportation, training, mental-health) increase income support and reduce barriers to serving, especially for disadvantaged, tribal, and rural volunteers.
Taxpayers and the federal budget — The bill authorizes broad new recurring spending (service-learning funds, stipends and education awards, tuition grants, platform development, paid internships, readiness activities) that will increase federal outlays and could require higher taxes or crowd out other priorities.
Low-resource schools, community organizations, and small nonprofits — Required 50% non‑Federal matches, competitive grant processes, and costs to integrate with centralized platforms risk excluding underfunded districts and small organizations, worsening geographic and resource inequities.
Students, job applicants, and platform members — The centralized Service Platform and expanded assessment/data collection create privacy and data‑security risks by collecting and storing sensitive education, employment, and skills data.
Based on analysis of 15 sections of legislative text.
Creates civic-education grants, a White House service council, military tuition-for-service authority, expanded national service supports and awards, federal hiring reforms, intern pay rules, and Selective Service updates.
Creates new programs and policy changes across civic education, national service, military recruiting, federal hiring, and the Selective Service. It establishes a competitive Civic Education Fund for schools and teacher development, an Executive Office Council on military/national/public service, authority for military departments to offer pre-service tuition grants tied to enlistment, expanded wraparound supports and higher educational awards for national service participants, federal hiring pilots and a Pathways Program for students/recent graduates, minimum pay for certain congressional and judicial interns, and updates to Selective Service regulations and exercises. Sets new reporting, evaluation, and regulatory requirements for agencies (Education, Defense, OPM, CNCS, Office of Management & Budget, and courts/legislative branch offices), authorizes appropriations in broad terms for some programs, and creates new oversight and implementation timelines (including plans, reports, and evaluation cycles).