Lack of Money Forces Federal Service Program to Suspend Application Process

Interest in joining AmeriCorps was so robust last year that the program has suspended the enrollment of new volunteers until Congress releases enough money to cover the additional people.

The problem was compounded by imprecision in the federal government’s procedure for monitoring the enrollment process and by Congress’s failure to approve spending on the program for the fiscal year that began October 1. The resulting enrollment suspension took many nonprofit groups that employ AmeriCorps members by surprise.

The national-service program had anticipated that it would enroll 50,000 Americans in 2002, but it reached that goal by November — sooner than anticipated, said Leslie Lenkowsky, who directs the Corporation for National and Community Service, which runs the AmeriCorps program.

“We’ve seen an enormous increase in applicants,” Mr. Lenkowsky said. “There’s a huge demand among people of all ages to sign on to AmeriCorps.”

AmeriCorps members receive a modest stipend during the year or two they spend in the program, and are also eligible for educational assistance for up to seven years after they complete their service.

The more than $200-million in the National Service Trust, the fund that finances those educational awards, was sufficient to cover its commitments to current volunteers but not to cover payments to any new ones, Mr. Lenkowsky said. Because Congress adjourned without approving the president’s request for an additional $57-million for the trust fund in fiscal 2003, he said, the corporation had no choice but to stop processing applications.

More than 10,000 prospective volunteers nationwide who were poised to sign up for the program are affected by the suspension, Mr. Lenkowsky estimated.

2,000 Charities

AmeriCorps volunteers work with more than 2,000 nonprofit groups, including local organizations as well as national groups like the American Red Cross and Habitat for Humanity. They participate in a wide range of activities, such as building low-cost housing, cleaning up the environment, and counseling young people. Full-time members receive an annual stipend of $9,300, while part-time workers get a prorated fraction of that amount.

After a year’s service, members are also eligible for college tuition assistance: $4,725 for full-time volunteers and $2,363 for part-time ones.

Money for the stipends comes out of the AmeriCorps operating budget, which was $240-million last year. President Bush has asked for $403-million for fiscal 2003, in hopes of enrolling 75,000 volunteers this year. But those hopes may not be realized, since the Senate Appropriations Committee approved just $290-million, and Congress may tinker with that figure further in a spending bill that it expects to pass this month.

Congressional Inquiry

The sudden suspension of processing applicants occurred in part because the Corporation for National and Community Service had difficulty tracking the number of Americans who enrolled in AmeriCorps. Like many colleges and universities, the program accepts more applicants than it has room for, in the expectation that a certain percentage of those who apply will end up choosing to do something else.

Last year, however, applicants went on to enroll in the program at a greater rate than expected, to the point that the flow of new volunteers threatened to exhaust the available funds.

“The corporation has not done as good a job as it should have in forecasting” the number of applicants it enrolled, Mr. Lenkowsky said. It has asked the Inspector General’s office to help sort out what happened and propose ways to prevent such confusion in the future, he added.

At the request of several members of Congress, the General Accounting Office has mounted its own investigation into the matter.

Even before those investigations are complete, however, the corporation is taking steps to improve the information flow and receive greater financial flexibility so it can avoid such pauses in the future. One option would be to obtain the authority to transfer money between the operating budget and the trust fund, for example. The corporation also intends to require quicker reporting by nonprofit groups that employ AmeriCorps workers and the state offices that supervise the programs.

“There are lots of people who want to be accommodated,” Mr. Lenkowsky said. “We want to accommodate them, but we have to do so within the confines of what we’re budgeted.”