Sponsors
The bill expands paid internship and volunteer‑linked scholarship opportunities and provides federal funding and clearer definitions to support participation, at the trade-off of increased federal spending, administrative burdens, and uneven access that may favor better‑resourced communities.
Secondary school students and in-state undergraduates gain paid local government internship opportunities (with required educational coordination and employment-related accommodations), lowering financial and transportation/childcare barriers and building a local government workforce pipeline.
College students who complete volunteer service can receive service-linked scholarships (up to $3,000 per year), plus priority renewals and federal supplemental awards, reducing out-of-pocket college costs and incentivizing community service.
States, local governments, and educational institutions receive predictable federal funding to run the programs (funding streams in the bill support both internships and scholarships), enabling expansion and administrative capacity for those programs.
Taxpayers face increased federal spending (approximately $150 million per year across the internship and scholarship streams) with no offsets specified.
Students who work, provide caregiving, or have disabilities may be disadvantaged by the requirement to document 100 volunteer hours per year to qualify for scholarships, limiting access for those with time or accessibility constraints.
The programs risk favoring well-resourced jurisdictions and schools (those with grant-writing capacity or better ability to document service), producing uneven access and widening disparities for rural and low-resource communities.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Introduced September 11, 2025 by Andy Kim · Last progress September 11, 2025
Creates three related federal initiatives to expand youth service and government internship pathways. It funds a competitive grant program to place and pay secondary school students and eligible in-state undergraduates in local-government internships, a federal-state scholarship program that awards tiered scholarships to students who complete volunteer service, and a recognition program to honor schools and higher education institutions for volunteer achievements. The measure authorizes $50 million per year for the paid-internship grants and $100 million per year for the volunteer-service scholarships for fiscal years 2026–2030, and requires the Secretary to set up the two programs within one year of enactment.