A recent bill has been approved by a House of Representatives Subcommittee that would underfund the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) for the 2016 fiscal year. This would lead to a cut in 40,000 AmeriCorps positions and shut down all AmeriCorps NCCC campuses. If this piece of legislation is approved by the Full Committee it will likely go to the floor of the House for a vote, from there to the Senate and then finally to the President.

The possibility of this legislation becoming law leaves me with a lot of concerns and questions.

In 2014 NCCC removed 1,179 acres of brush/undergrowth to prevent fires and performed prescribed burns on more than 17,000 acres of land. If NCCC is shut down, who will help the Crown King Fire Department with their project to create defensible spaces for the Crown King residents?

In 2014, NCCC Corps Members helped to construct 281 houses. If NCCC is shut down, who will fill the void that many Habitat for Humanity worksites will experience? How will they be able to build affordable housing for low income families in a timely manner?

In 2014, NCCC returned $13 million tax dollars to various communities through tax preparation services. Who will help out various tax services such as the Sacramento Coalition for Working Families to connect working families to underutilized resources?

In 2014, NCCC assisted over 17,000 homeless people, over 24,000 at-risk youth and nearly 6,000 veterans. Without NCCC who will help out Loaves & Fishes to feed the hungry and homeless of Sacramento?

If funding to CNCS is reduced, who will provide vital services to survivors of disasters? When Hurricane Sandy struck the East Coast more than 3,800 CNCS participates served in six states during the recovery. What will happen the next time we have a large-scale disaster and there are no NCCC teams to pull for the recovery?

If funding to CNCS is reduced, will they still be able to fund various Conservation Corps such as Rocky Mountain Youth Corps (RMYC)? If RMYC loses their funding how will the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative whom they partner with effectively repair the damaged tundra ecosystems on various mountains such as Mt. Bierstadt?

As you can tell, I have a lot of questions about this piece of legislation. Honestly, I don’t know what the answers to these questions are and as a result I will be contacting my member of congress to ask them to either reject this bill or at least give an adequate explanation as to why passing a bill like this would make sense.

If you feel the same way that I do, then I encourage you to also contact your a member of congress by checking out any of the following links!

Write a letter with Habitat for Humanity

Send a Tweet or Facebook Post using ‪#‎SoundOff‬

Get involved with AmeriCorps Alums

If you are interested in seeing where I got all of my facts from you can check out this (very long) PDF that CNCS put out for the 2016 fiscal year: http://www.nationalservice.gov/…/pa…/cncs_2016_CBJ_Final.pdf