House AmeriCorps backers plan effort to raise funding

House Appropriations Committee Democrats, led by Rep. Norman Dicks of Washington, were set Monday to offer an amendment that would add $100 million in funding for AmeriCorps as the panel took up the fiscal 2003 supplemental spending bill, aides said.

Along with co-sponsors Reps. David Price of North Carolina, a member of the VA-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee, which funds AmeriCorps, and Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, co-chairwoman of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, Dicks tried to drum up support for the amendment Monday on both sides of the aisle.

House GOP and committee leaders were expected to try to head off possible Republican defections, although GOP Reps. John Sweeney of New York and David Vitter of Louisiana have signed letters in support of additional AmeriCorps funding. Their spokesmen could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon about whether Sweeney and Vitter would support Dicks' amendment.

In all, 224 House members have signed letters supporting an extra $100 million in 2003 supplemental funding for AmeriCorps, including 22 members of the Appropriations Committee. But the Dicks amendment faces long odds, given opposition from the White House and GOP leaders.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said on "Meet the Press" Sunday, "I want to see some justification, what that $100 million would do before we spend it." But Hastert also gave himself some wriggle room by adding, "I'm always open to it."

A spokesman for VA-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman James Walsh, R-N.Y., who also opposes supplemental funding for AmeriCorps, said: "This has got to be about accountability and reform. We still don't know what the true needs are."

Accounting errors by the Corporation for National and Community Service, which runs the AmeriCorps volunteer program, have resulted in significant program and position cuts, and backers said emergency funding is necessary to stabilize the program until reforms are authorized later this year.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, included the $100 million in that chamber's version of the 2003 supplemental, for a total of $2 billion. The Senate supplemental spending bill was attached to the fiscal 2004 Legislative Branch appropriations bill. The administration requested $1.9 billion in the supplemental, mostly for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and wildfire suppression. The White House did not request AmeriCorps money.

The House Appropriations Committee was also scheduled Monday night to take up the $90 billion 2004 VA-HUD spending measure, which includes $363.4 million for AmeriCorps. That represents a $37.2 million increase over last year's enacted level, Walsh's spokesman noted.

Meanwhile, the Senate began debate Monday on a $28.5 billion 2004 Homeland Security funding measure. The White House issued a statement of administration policy supporting the bill, but noted that it exceeds President Bush's request by $1 billion, and also that a section of the measure could hamper the administration's managerial flexibility by preventing the Homeland Security secretary from making temporary staff reassignments.