APWU Leader Criticizes Federal Gov’t’s Withholding Funding for Conservation & Aid to Seniors in Maine
Photo: AmeriCorps members working at the Kennebec Highlands Public Lands in July. Courtesy of Maine Conservation Corps
The Trump administration is withholding $1.2 million in Congressionally approved funding for about 100 AmeriCorps members to improve trails, habitats, forests as stewards of the Maine Conservation Corps. The move follows a court order in June that the administration must restore hundreds of millions of dollars in grant funding for AmeriCorps after nineteen Democratic attorneys general sued to release the funds. Since then, all eight of Maine’s AmeriCorps programs that were affected by the DOGE cuts have been restored by the ruling.
However, Trump’s Office of Management Budget (OMB) is withholding approximately $1.2 million in funding for the Maine Conservation Corps and Maine's Commission Investment Fund which are overseen by Volunteer Maine (previously known as the Maine Commission for Community Service). The Investment Fund supports volunteer managers and volunteer emergency response in Maine. More than 7,400 Maine residents have served 11 million hours earning over $26.8 million in education awards since its inception.
“Without release of the funding, our programs are in jeopardy,” said APWU 458 President Scott Adams, who serves as the Vice Chair of Volunteer Maine. “It's very difficult for those involved to fulfill their goals if they aren't certain they can financially support not only the programs but the volunteers who have planned to serve.”
The Maine Conservation Corps is the largest AmeriCorps program operating in Maine. Adams said that if OMB doesn't release the funds, approximately 50 percent of services will need to be cut. OMB is also withholding $166,000 for Maine's Commission Investment Fund and $170,000 for Maine's Senior Companions Project.
“This program aids older adults in obtaining medication, rides, and food,” said Adams. “Without these funds it is expected that over 100 seniors will lose out on services.”
In a letter to Senator Susan Collins, Volunteer Maine noted that AmeriCorps Seniors “prevents isolation, improves health, keeps older Mainers in their homes and allows them to service their communities.” It noted that AmeriCorps members also deliver firewood to families experiencing heat insecurity.
“Since the funding has been appropriated and grantees have been awarded that funding, it's not only disruptive to withhold it, but also detrimental to the entire volunteer process and undermines our ideals,” Adams added.
Founded in 1994 with the mission to “improve lives, strengthen communities, and foster civic engagement,” AmeriCorps is an independent federal agency that engages more than five million Americans in service through a variety of stipended volunteer work programs. AmeriCorps volunteers work on initiatives to protect the environment, help out in school classrooms, break down barriers to recovery and keep older Mainers company. At the end of their terms, members are awarded a grant that can be used to pay college tuition or student loans.
Federal surveys of AmeriCorps members from 2019, 2021 and 2023 show that 90 percent of members joined the national program in part to gain skills that would help them in school and work, and well over 80 percent said their experience in AmeriCorps helped further their “professional goals and endeavors.”