Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., wants to do away with the federal agency that pays for community service programs because many of its volunteers are compensated.
Agency employees say the pay is hardly generous – $2.65 an hour in some cases.
Stutzman has announced he is sponsoring the Volunteer Freedom Act, which would eliminate the Corporation for National and Community Service.
He said in a statement that the agency is “unnecessary and expensive.”
It had an annual budget of more than $1 billion in fiscal 2011 and will cost taxpayers more than $11.5 billion over the next 10 years, he said.
“My bill is based on a simple truth: It’s not volunteering if it comes with a paycheck,” Stutzman said.
He also said: “Americans volunteer because we believe in better communities, stronger families and personal commitments. Volunteering isn’t something we do for our bottom line.”
The CNCS, created by Congress in 1993, operates a half-dozen community service programs, including SeniorCorps for people older than 55 and AmeriCorps for young adults. The agency says that more than 1.5 million people perform community service each year through the CNCS.
AmeriCorps has one program that gives young adults $11,000 a year for living expenses and up to $5,500 for college tuition in exchange for 1,700 hours of community service.
“It’s at the poverty line; nobody is getting rich off this,” Aoife McCarthy, press secretary for CNCS, said Monday.
IPFW has an AmeriCorps program for 29 students. Each receives $1,175 in scholarship money for every 300 hours of community service.
They receive no other money but get a free meal at a monthly meeting, said IPFW AmeriCorps director Deb Barrick.
The students volunteer for such organizations as Boys & Girls Club, Community Harvest Food Bank, Family Life Center, Crime Victim Care and Charis House, a shelter for women and children.
Emily Sellers, an official for AmeriCorps in Indianapolis, said the student volunteer opportunities are “a great way to gain professional experience and to have a positive impact on the community.”
McCarthy said two SeniorCorps programs pay volunteers $2.65 an hour.
One is for foster grandparents, and the other provides companionship for frail older adults and people with disabilities or terminal illnesses.
SeniorCorps also operates a community service program called RSVP.
Jean Joley, executive director of Volunteer Center RSVP in Fort Wayne, said the program currently has more than 60 volunteers who are preparing income tax returns for free.
“We pay none at all” to RSVP volunteers, the executive director said. She said administrative costs amount to 58 cents for each hour of volunteer service.
A year ago, the Republican House approved an appropriations bill that would have eliminated federal funds for the CNCS, but Democratic Senate did not consider the measure.
The agency still lost funding – Barrick said the IPFW AmeriCorps program was cut roughly by half.
McCarthy said the CNCS receives $800 million a year in money from sources other than the federal government.
“We pride ourselves on being a private-public partnership,” she said.
