April 30, 2025 10:30 a.m.
Oregon’s U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden have joined their Congressional colleagues in an effort led by Senator Jeff Coons of Delaware to defend AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps members.
A joint release said the lawmakers are calling on President Trump to immediately reverse cuts to what they call a critical national service agency, made by the Department of Government Efficiency.
Central Oregon-based nonprofit Heart of Oregon Corps, which supports 225 youth annually in workforce development, is experiencing the effects of DOGE’s AmeriCorps cuts. Operating in four Oregon counties and working with the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, HOC relies heavily on AmeriCorps national and state grants to drive crucial projects in conservation, wildfire fuels reduction, affordable housing, and childcare. The release said without federal investment through AmeriCorps in the short term, HOC would need to eliminate up to 60 current or planned AmeriCorps service terms for local youth in their High Desert Conservation Corps and YouthBuild Programs. Further, if pending new grant applications for the upcoming fall are not processed, up to 100 more service terms for central Oregon youth and young adults would be affected, from Warm Springs and Madras to Bend and from Sisters to Prineville.
The lawmakers urgent demand comes as the Trump Administration recently placed a majority of AmeriCorps employees on leave and dismantled AmeriCorps NCCC. The senators claim the move jeopardizes work being done to address urgent community challenges, including workforce shortages, and natural disaster recovery and response, while robbing young people of life-changing opportunities.
The lawmakers wrote, “We are deeply concerned these actions will prevent the agency from continuing to deliver critical services, which includes supporting veterans, fighting wildfires, tutoring in schools, combatting the fentanyl epidemic and much more”.
In addition to Merkley and Wyden and Coons, the letter was also signed by a large group of Democratic senators and 105 members of the U.S. House of Representatives.
The full text of the letter is linked: https://www.coons.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/americorps_rif_letter.pdf