[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 46 (Thursday, March 14, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S2384]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            AmeriCorps Week

  Mr. COONS. Mr. President, volunteerism and service have long defined 
the very heart of the American spirit.
  It was Alexis de Tocqueville, in the middle of the 19th century, at 
really the dawn of the modern American Republic, who observed that it 
was the willingness to take initiative, to get engaged, to roll up your 
sleeves and get to work helping to build your community that 
distinguished the people of this new continent from the Old World. And 
I will say I have seen it myself.
  I am here to celebrate the 30th anniversary of America's national 
service program, something called AmeriCorps. It was created in a 
bipartisan effort at the end of the George W. Bush administration and 
at the beginning of the Bill Clinton administration. There was a 
concerted bipartisan effort to recognize that models around the country 
that showed the impact on young Americans of spending a year of their 
lives in service to others were worth expanding and replicating.
  This week, actually, happens to be AmeriCorps Week--March 10 to March 
16--and we are celebrating 30 years of service.
  I have just introduced a bipartisan and bicameral resolution with 
Senator Cassidy, Congresswoman Matsui, and Congressman Graves. And, as 
I mentioned, AmeriCorps has been bipartisan from the start, and I look 
forward to continuing its future in a bipartisan way.
  I have long had a connection to AmeriCorps, going back to one of the 
first national direct AmeriCorps programs that I ran with the ``I Have 
a Dream'' Foundation in the mid-1990s. When I was working for ``I Have 
a Dream,'' we had 150 AmeriCorps members serving in 10 cities, doing 
afterschool programming and summer programming for children from 
disadvantaged backgrounds. It is one of many ways in which young 
Americans participating in AmeriCorps have contributed to their 
community, have developed their skills, and have earned money for 
college.
  Years later, when I was a county executive, I launched the New Castle 
County Emergency Services Corps to help strengthen the volunteer fire 
service in my home community. There are dozens of volunteer fire 
companies in Delaware, and they have often served as the backbone not 
just of the first responder community but of every community.
  I grew up in a very small town named Hockessin, and that siren going 
off in the middle of the night from our volunteer fire company was a 
reminder to me of the call that is at the very foundation of our 
Nation, to get up in the middle of the night, to jump in your truck, 
and to drive down to the fire hall and to take on the risk of serving 
and saving your neighbor.
  Recruiting, training, and supporting AmeriCorps members through the 
``I Have a Dream'' Program was one of the most rewarding opportunities 
in my life. I, actually, for many years, served on the commission that 
directs and oversees AmeriCorps in Delaware, and it was through that 
service that I met my wife.
  Over 1 million Americans have served in AmeriCorps since 1994. 
Delaware, today, alone has more than 361 traditional AmeriCorps members 
and more than 900 AmeriCorps seniors, and they do a wide range of 
things: from tutoring children to responding to disasters, improving 
and rebuilding housing, helping veterans, and much more.
  Let me briefly mention two currently serving members of AmeriCorps in 
Delaware:
  Sharron, an adult literacy instructor who works with Literacy 
Delaware, teaches English to our newest Americans. She spoke of the joy 
an immigrant mother felt when the school administrator called to tell 
her about her son--and to communicate something positive about his 
progress in school--and she could understand everything for the first 
time, as she was coming to master English without an interpreter.
  Shristi, an academic coach at TeenSHARP, a college access program for 
underrepresented high school students, spoke of how fulfilling it was 
to help young men and women in Delaware, just as she herself had 
benefited from similar mentoring and tutoring.
  These two examples are a reminder of what more than 1 million 
AmeriCorps members over 30 years have experienced--that service brings 
America together. It helps us bridge our divides.
  AmeriCorps has organized, for decades now, an annual 9/11 Day of 
Service that brings people of all backgrounds together to be reminded 
of what citizenship means in our Nation: service to others.
  As we reflect on 30 years, I think it needs to be a call for all of 
us to engage in the work of service; to take up the challenge of 
reauthorizing, strengthening, and expanding AmeriCorps as a program; 
and to recognize that the best thing we can do for our Nation is to get 
committed to each other through national service.
  Congratulations to all who have served in AmeriCorps over the last 30 
years and to the millions more Americans whose future will be 
enlivened, brightened, and strengthened through the opportunity to 
serve.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Indiana.
  Mr. YOUNG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following 
Senators be permitted to speak prior to the scheduled vote: Young for 
up to 5 minutes, Barrasso for up to 7 minutes, Stabenow for up to 5 
minutes, and Cardin for up to 3 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.