House, Senate, administration battle over volunteer program that aids Katrina victims

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House, Senate, administration battle over volunteer program
By Maria Recio | McClatchy Newspapers


WASHINGTON — One of the most popular volunteer programs in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the National Civilian Community Corps, is facing a budget crunch.

The corps, which is under the AmeriCorps umbrella, is a 10-month program for 18- to 24-year-olds to do short-term projects for six to eight weeks in areas of need. The approximately 1,200 volunteers a year receive small stipends, making the program a target for fiscal conservatives, who think it isn't government's role to pay for charity.

The House of Representatives has passed an appropriation for fiscal 2008 that would cut funding for the corps from $26 million this year to President Bush's proposed $11 million. But the program has a booster on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran, the panel's powerful ranking Republican.

"It's a volunteer program that has meant so much to the people of Mississippi," Cochran said in an interview.

He's pushed for an increase to $31 million, which the appropriations panel has approved and which awaits Senate action. The Senate bill would open two more training campuses for volunteers, one in Vicksburg, Miss., and the other in Vinton, Iowa. As part of belt-tightening this year, the corps closed its campuses in Washington and in Charleston, S.C. Its remaining campuses are in Sacramento, Calif., Denver and Perry Point, Md.

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