National Americorps Week

Floor Speech

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Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, this week many people will be celebrating National AmeriCorps Week. I will not be one of them. AmeriCorps has been around for almost 30 years, and in that time we have learned never to underestimate the ability of the Federal Government to muck things up.

No one denies that AmeriCorps began with good intentions, and I applaud the philanthropic spirit of those who volunteer out of a genuine desire to help those in need. However, I cannot applaud a bloated bureaucratic organization that is the poster child for fraud and mismanagement.

AmeriCorps is entrusted with 1.1 billion taxpayer dollars every single year. And every single year AmeriCorps proves it is an expert at wasting taxpayer funds.

For example, some AmeriCorps programs cost taxpayers four to eight times more money than programs that perform identical services. Even more concerning is the fact that neither Congress, the Inspector General, nor AmeriCorps itself have an idea of how taxpayer dollars are being managed. In fact, AmeriCorps' financial statements are so bad that they have not been able to be audited for the past 5 years.

According to AmeriCorps' Inspector General, if this occurred at a private organization there would be a ``wholesale resignation or firing of the leadership team, and the public would be shorting their stock.''

Even more concerning is the lack of oversight AmeriCorps provides over its grantees that are plagued with fraudulent activity. For example, a Hawaiian nonprofit executive was recently sentenced to 46 months in prison for embezzling over $500,000 from AmeriCorps, and a school district in St. Louis was found guilty of encouraging AmeriCorps volunteers to falsely inflate time sheets.

The private sector often does the same work as AmeriCorps but at a fraction of the price and with far less waste, fraud, and mismanagement.

It is our job as Members of the House of Representatives to ensure that taxpayer funds are protected. The power of the purse is one of our most important constitutional duties. We therefore must stop feeding the black hole that is AmeriCorps and instead empower States and local governments to meet the needs of their residents.

The last time AmeriCorps' programs were reauthorized was in 2009 with the passage of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act which was named in honor of the late Senator who was the author of the legislation that governs many of AmeriCorps' programs.

Yet, despite the support for national service, Senator Kennedy himself emphasized the importance of proper stewardship of taxpayer dollars, noting during a 1993 floor speech on the establishment of the corporation that ``Congress will not, and should not, fund a program if it is unsuccessful.''

I agree with him. AmeriCorps has had 29 years to prove itself, and the only thing it has proven is that it is a drain on taxpayers and a massive disappointment. This is a failed agency that needs to be overhauled completely or just eliminated.

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