It would be hardhearted and counterproductive to squeeze any more money from the already meager federal funding for public service programs that help struggling schoolchildren, veterans, the elderly and communities stricken by natural disasters. Yet a House subcommittee this week approved a spending bill that cuts federal financing for the already beleaguered Corporation for National and Community Service, which oversees many programs, the most well known of which is AmeriCorps.

Since its inception two decades ago, AmeriCorps has matched 900,000 Americans with nonprofit groups that are doing important work, like Teach for America, the American Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, Boys & Girls Clubs of America and United Way. In addition, this summer AmeriCorps teams will work in economically hard-hit cities and towns like Baltimore, Detroit and Ferguson, Mo., to clean up public lands, tutor children, repair homes and help keep food banks running.

AmeriCorps members receive a small stipend to help cover their living costs. After a year of full-time service, they receive a modest education award — $5,645 — to put toward higher education or to pay off student loans. The budget for AmeriCorps, a modest $665 million a year, more than pays for itself in terms of social benefits.

In addition to helping communities, the program gives young people a chance to perform rewarding work that often leads them into their careers. Studies show that the program expands the spirit of public service nationally: People in AmeriCorps for a year are subsequently more likely to volunteer in and become involved in the communities they live in. The program is hugely popular. In a typical year, hundreds of thousands of people, mainly in their teens and 20s, apply for roughly 80,000 slots.