AmeriCorps has become the latest target of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, with $400 million in grants on the chopping block.
According to The Washington Post, DOGE has ordered the national service program deploying thousands of volunteers across America to terminate nearly 41 percent of its total 2025 funding. More than 32,000 AmeriCorps members and senior volunteers are affected alongside 1,031 partner organizations.
The cuts are the latest in a series of DOGE-y attacks on AmeriCorps. Last week, most of the service’s roughly 650 full-time federal staff were placed on immediate paid administrative leave and barred from accessing agency systems. Hundreds of AmeriCorps’ National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) members—young Americans serving 10-month stints on disaster relief, housing, and education projects—were also abruptly discharged. Just 15 percent of AmeriCorps’ workforce remains active.
The dismantling has drawn sharp condemnation. Louisiana’s Republican Senator Bill Cassidy took to X to object to the cuts, stating that he supports “improving efficiency and eliminating waste” but that the service has provided “crucial support” in his state.
Getting various reports that DOGE RIFs at @AmeriCorps are being extended to the cancelation of Congressionally appropriated grants. Attempting to get more information from DOGE/OMB to confirm or disprove these reports. I support improving efficiency and eliminating waste, but I…
— U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (@SenBillCassidy) April 25, 2025
California Governor Gavin Newsom announced in response to last week’s news that the state would sue to stop the shutdown, calling it a betrayal of America’s civil legacy. “We’ve gone from the New Deal, the New Frontier, and the Great Society to a federal government that gives the middle finger to volunteers serving their fellow Americans,” Newsom said.
The DOGE attempt to dismantle @AmeriCorps is more proof that no one in the Trump Administration knows a thing about public service.We’re going to court to defend AmeriCorps’ essential work — and to ensure its vital role in promoting service and building connection lives on. pic.twitter.com/QT2fQ7qbnu
— Governor Gavin Newsom (@CAgovernor) April 23, 2025
The legal grounds for the suit are not yet public, but pressure is mounting as nonprofits, disaster response teams, and veterans’ organizations brace for the fallout.
Founded under President Bill Clinton in 1993, AmeriCorps continues the work of Lyndon B. Johnson’s anti-poverty VISTA program and has long been a bipartisan mainstay.
The service dispatches volunteers to rebuild after natural disasters, tutor at-risk students, and support seniors. Volunteers recieve a modest living allowance, basic benefits, and an education award of around $7,300 for completing 1,700 hours of service. It operates on a budget of roughly $1 billion.
Now, entire networks of disaster response, housing support, and community education projects face collapse.
“A lot more nonprofits and government organizations are going to need help,” Jade Marshalek, a recently discharged NCCC member, recently told the Associated Press. “And there won’t be anyone left to do it.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to both The White House and AmeriCorps for comment.
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