Recognizing the Significant Accomplishments of the AmeriCorps

Floor Speech

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Ms. MATSUI. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me time.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of House Resolution 1338, which recognizes the significant accomplishments of AmeriCorps volunteers and helps raise awareness about the importance of national and community service. I would like to thank the Education and Labor Committee and especially Chairman Miller for their support of this legislation and my fellow co-chairs of the National Service Caucus, Representatives Ehlers, Platts and Price, for their partnership. As a co-chair of the National Service Caucus, it is a pleasure to call attention to the tremendous work of those involved in service at every level.

We are now in the midst of National AmeriCorps Week which is celebrated each year to honor the important work that AmeriCorps volunteers provide to our communities. At this time last year, the President had just recently signed the Senator Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, with strong bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate; and we have seen since then a tremendous increase in the number of AmeriCorps applications and interest in service as a whole.

The bill answered the call for Americans of all generations to help get the country through the recent economic crisis by serving in their communities. In times of strife, the American people have always shown a spirit of service and ingenuity, and investments in service and volunteer programs help prepare us to handle the unforeseen crises.

In my hometown of Sacramento, the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps, or as we say NCCC, provides important benefits to our region. For example, Sacramento-based NCCC members served thousands of hours to help fight the fires that devastated the lives and livelihoods of thousands of Californians and, in doing so, helped protect thousands more. AmeriCorps NCCC members are disaster trained and available for immediate deployment in the event of a natural disaster anywhere within the United States. Through programs such as AmeriCorps, State and national Volunteers in Service to America, or VISTA, and NCCC, servicemembers address critical needs in our communities, and we should continue to make national service more accessible to the millions of Americans who want to serve their country by contributing to their community.

Madam Speaker, AmeriCorps Week offers us an opportunity to honor the important work of AmeriCorps volunteers in our own districts and across the country. I urge my colleagues to support this resolution and take this opportunity to thank AmeriCorps volunteers for their dedication to improving our Nation one neighborhood at a time.

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