 |
Senate Passes COVID-19 Emergency Relief Bill with CNCS Provisions Included
Bill Now Heads to House for a Vote, President for Signature
Dear States for Service Coalition members:
Last night, the Senate unanimously passed a $2.2 trillion emergency relief bill in response to the COVID-19 pandemic that included the following Provisions related to the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS):
- Provide CNCS with a waiver to allow AmeriCorps members to earn the full value of their Segal AmeriCorps Education Award if COVID-19 prevented them from fulfilling their service hour requirements.
- May permit fixed-amount grant recipients under such section 129(l) to maintain a pro rata amount of grant funds, at the discretion of the Corporation for National and Community Service, for participants who exited, were suspended, or are serving in a limited capacity due to COVID-19, to enable the grant recipients to maintain operations and to accept participants.
- Provide CNCS with the authority to carryover unexpended FY20 appropriated dollars and apply these resources to the agency's FY21 COVID-19 recovery efforts and/or give CNCS the flexibility to transfer these funds between accounts and program lines to augment existing AmeriCorps and Senior Corps grants
- Extends the term of service (for a period not to exceed the 1-year period immediately following the end of the national emergency) or waive any upper age limit (except in no case shall the maximum age exceed 26 years of age) for national service programs carried out by the National Civilian Community Corps.
The bill does not appear to include any additional emergency funding for CNCS - but this is only the first of several expected COVID-19 relief bills and that may come later. Read the full text of the bill.
The House now plans to vote on the $2 trillion package this Friday, and the bill is ultimately expected to pass and be sent to the President for his signature soon.
More to come on Friday! In the meantime, please help us thank the 29 Congressional champions who signed onto the last minute COVID-19 Dear Colleague letter for National Service by liking/sharing on social media:
Thank you all for your support, advocacy, and sharing COVID-19 national service hardship stories with us to make this possible!
Tom Branen, Chief Policy Officer
States for Service (S4S) Coalition
An initiative of America's Service Commissions
Join Now
|
|
America's Service Commissions | 455 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Suite 153 | Washington, DC 20001 (202) 813-0807
|
|
|
|
