The independent federal agency that organizes community service work in the United States has placed on administrative leave almost all of its federal staff at the direction of Elon Musk’s cost-cutting team, according to people familiar with developments at the agency.
Those on leave include all of the employees of a national disaster response program, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information they provided.
A majority of federal employees at the agency, which is known as AmeriCorps, received emails on Wednesday with an attached memo, dated April 16, from the interim head of the agency, Jennifer Bastress Tahmasebi. The memo told them they were placed on administrative leave with pay, effective immediately, according to two copies reviewed by The New York Times.
It also directed them not to return to AmeriCorps property or access its systems.
The changes at AmeriCorps come as Mr. Musk’s team, called the Department of Government Efficiency, has moved to shutter agencies, including those with missions cast into law by Congress, in a bid to cut what it calls excess federal spending.
As with other agencies affected as part of Mr. Musk’s effort, only a small fraction of AmeriCorps employees remained at the headquarters in Washington on Thursday. The expected cuts could gut the agency’s response work in regions decimated by recent natural disasters, including areas in the Southeastern United States that were wiped out by Hurricane Helene.
An official with the Trump administration confirmed on Thursday that roughly 75 percent of full-time AmeriCorps employees were placed on administrative leave, and noted that the agency’s $1 billion budget, which the official suggested was mismanaged, was appropriately targeted in President Trump’s bid to eliminate waste.
AmeriCorps was created by Congress in 1993 as the Corporation for National and Community Service. It was designed as a domestic version of the Peace Corps and eventually rebranded to adopt the name of its most popular anti-poverty program, AmeriCorps VISTA. The agency’s programs have primarily attracted young Americans from diverse backgrounds into community service for a roughly $4,000 stipend, housing and food, and a grant to be used toward higher education if they complete their program.
Mr. Musk’s team first visited AmeriCorps’ headquarters last week, which was reported earlier by The Washington Post, and began moving swiftly to dismantle the agency, people familiar with the events said. According to those people, the agency moved on Wednesday at the Department of Government Efficiency’s direction to place staff on administrative leave after more than 100 employees had already chosen to take a retirement package that was offered to them, sparing only several dozen employees.
While AmeriCorps is an independent government agency, the chief executive and board members are appointed by the president and must be confirmed by the Senate. Mr. Trump had not appointed a new head or board members, leaving career workers in charge of the agency after former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s appointees left office in January.
On Tuesday, roughly 750 employees one of the service programs operated by AmeriCorps — the National Civilian Community Corps, the formal name of the disaster assistance program — received emails placing them on administrative leave until April 30, after which their employment would be terminated, according to the content of the email that was reviewed by The Times. They were told to leave their posts and head to one of four regional offices around the country, from which the agency would pay to fly them home.
“Your service is concluding due to programmatic circumstances beyond your control,” the email read. In an attached memo from their program director, employees were told that if they had finished at least 15 percent of their 1,700-hour service term, they would still be eligible to receive award money toward higher education, according to a copy of the memo reviewed by The Times. In 2024, the award was $7,395.
The National Civilian Community Corps deployed adults between the ages of 18 and 26 to work for weeks at a time to serve in communities, working on disaster response, environmental conservation and wildfire prevention across the country. Among those were roughly 200 members of a program run jointly with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and focused on disaster response, especially in regions hit hard by recent hurricanes.
David A. Fahrenthold contributed reporting.
Aishvarya Kavi works in the Washington bureau of The Times, helping to cover a variety of political and national news.
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