Schumer decries AmeriCorps cuts, saying program invests in young people, communities

Press Release, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer

After Trump and “DOGE” placed a majority of AmeriCorps employees on leave and terminated nearly $400 million in AmeriCorps grants nationally earlier this month, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer today revealed this has impacted over 3,600 NY community service members.

That includes $26 million in federal funding for local community projects in every corner of New York State, and with more potential cuts on the horizon the senator broke down the impacts region by region to show just how deep these cuts go.

“AmeriCorps is one of the world’s greatest service programs, and one of the best bang for your buck federal investments in addressing community needs and in the future of our country,” Schumer said. “But across New York hundreds of AmeriCorps community service participants were just egregiously fired and had their funding ripped away halting their critical work helping the communities they serve.”

Schumer said this is the first step towards dismantling AmeriCorps entirely would devastate New York, which has over 1,700 AmeriCorps projects, and is demanding that NY House Republicans stand up to protect this vital public service and join him in his push to immediately reverse these cuts. All of these AmeriCorps programs have long-standing bipartisan support having been previously authorized by Congress and funded by the annual appropriations bill passed by Congress and signed into law, making ‘DOGE’s’ cuts unlawful.

A breakdown of dismissed volunteers and the $12,697,163 cut federal funding by region for Upstate NY includes:

Capital Region – $6,439,224; Rochester-Finger Lakes – $2,556,668; Western NY – $2,285,041; Southern Tier – $647,910; Central NY & North Country – $636,020; Hudson Valley – $132,300.

In recent days, Trump and ‘DOGE’ cut roughly 75% of full-time AmeriCorps employees and dismissed thousands of national service participants working on projects in every corner of the country, including over 3,600 community service participants across New York and cancelling over $26 million in grant funding, meaning in many instances these projects will not continue.

In Rochester, AmeriCorps members were improving academic engagement and college and career readiness throughout the Rochester City School District through Monroe Community College and providing public health apprenticeships through Flower City Public Health Corps.

In Buffalo, AmeriCorps members were tutoring more than 2,500 students across 4 schools in the school district through City Year, helping students improve attendance and academic performance. In addition, more AmeriCorps members were building homes through Habitat for Humanity.

“This critical work will now cease as these members are dismissed and funding is ripped away from our communities by Trump and ‘DOGE,’” Schumer said. “I am all for cutting out inefficiency, but you use a scalpel, not a chainsaw. You don’t dismiss thousands of members who have dedicated their time to public service and giving back to underserved communities – it makes no sense.”

Across New York State, there are over 22,000 national service members working on over 1,700 projects. AmeriCorps and its partners generated more than $20 million in outside resources from businesses, foundations, public agencies, and other sources in New York last year.

“There is no rhyme or reason to the project and grant terminations, other than DOGE was forcing AmeriCorps to get to a bottom-line dollar amount,” said Kelly Daly, President, AFSCME Local 2027. “The reason for eliminating over half the staff is very clear: This administration does not value the contributions of public servants who have been quietly administering an extremely efficient agency that engages Americans all across the country in service, which in addition to providing critical services, strengthens civic engagement and ties between people of all backgrounds.”