When our country faces difficult times, economically or otherwise, it is almost always our citizenry that show us the way forward.
Today, we are faced with increasingly difficult choices. How can we meet the growing need for services with shrinking fiscal resources at every level of government? How can we improve the lives of people in our communities and help them thrive when we can barely afford to provide them with the basic services they need to survive?
The answer is clear. We need cost-effective strategies for public problem solving that leverage the most powerful resource we have: the American people.
Two new reports released by Voices for National Service detail the vital role national service plays in providing cost-effective solutions to improve local communities and strengthen the American workforce and economy at large.
"National Service: Cost-Effectively Delivering Critical Services to Americans in Need" demonstrates how national service programs are mobilizing citizens to improve educational outcomes for children, help seniors live independently, and increase access to quality health-care services and affordable housing. They are also providing badly needed capacity to disaster relief across the country, having played pivotal roles in community rebuilding efforts after the Iowa floods of 2008, the devastating series of tornadoes throughout the Midwest in 2011, and the tragic aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
While to some the services provided and the outcomes achieved are testament enough to the worthiness of the investment, all the work is done at a three-to-one return on taxpayer investment. The more than 70,000 nonprofit organizations supported by the Corporation for National & Community Service match the funds they receive with corporate and philanthropic dollars to maximize the federal investment, bringing new private-sector resources into communities across the country.
One of the most devastating problems we face is skyrocketing unemployment. "National Service: Providing Pathways to Employment" highlights the unique role that national service programs play in providing Americans with the skills nonprofit, corporate, and public-sector employers are looking for from job applicants in this challenging economy. Given the rapid growth of the nonprofit sector (the third largest industry in America's economy, employing 10.5 million workers, or one tenth of America's workforce), the skills acquired by citizens through national service are particularly relevant to growing and strengthening the recovering American economy. Adequately preparing our nation's workforce for an increasingly competitive global marketplace will require creative new approaches to preparing people -- especially young people -- for the world of work. Public- and private-sector leaders agree: People who have spent a year or more in national service programs bring a set of skills and attitudes that make them especially attractive new hires. They are able to persist in difficult circumstances and work with diverse people, and they have a strong work ethic and sense of purpose.
Nevertheless, despite the overwhelming evidence that national service is integral to the health and strength of the American economy, the House Appropriations Committee voted last week to cut funding for national service programs through the Corporation for National and Community Service by 74 percent, eliminating AmeriCorps, the Volunteer Generation Fund, VISTA, the National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC), and the Social Innovation Fund. This decision completely disregards the essential role national service organizations are playing in communities across the country and stands to cause irreparable harm at a time when fiscally efficient support is needed more than ever.
While people across America are struggling and Congressional leaders are facing unprecedented and seemingly impossible choices about federal spending, national service is providing an answer to both of these challenges. An infusion of high-impact, cost-effective people power is bringing help, hope, and, most importantly, results to communities across our nation, leveraging private support and community volunteers through national service programs. The bang for the buck is compelling and badly needed, given today's economic realities.
The American people have faced the threat of national service program elimination before, and we have won. We have always reminded our nation's leaders of the bipartisan legacy of service led by both Presidents Bush, President Clinton, and President Obama. We have always educated our congressmen about the leveraged impact national service has on their communities and the devastating losses they would suffer if those programs were eliminated. We will fight this fight again. And once again, we will win.
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This is patently false, as anyone who has done volunteer work knows. The experience working for a volunteer agency has no value to private sector leaders. And it has little value to public sector leaders. How much volunteer work have Hilary Clinton or Bill Clinton done? All the praise for volunteers is just talk. Self-interest and self-promotion are valuable attributes. Not strong work ethic of sense of purpose.
Republicans
Denny Rehberg, Montana
Jerry Lewis, California
Rodney Alexander, Louisiana
Jack Kingston, Georgia
Kay Granger, Texas
Michael K. Simpson, Idaho
Jeff Flake, Arizona
Cynthia M. Lummis, Wyoming
Democrats
Rosa L. DeLauro, Connecticut
Nita M. Lowey, New York
Jesse L. Jackson, Jr., Illinois
Lucille Roybal-Allard, California
Barbara Lee, California
Appropriations Committee Releases the Fiscal Year 2013 Labor, Health and Human Services Funding Bill;
National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) – The bill includes $258.3 million for the NLRB – a decrease of $20 million (-7.2%) below last year’s level and $34.5 million (-12%) below the President’s budget request.
In addition, the legislation includes several provisions intended to stop the NLRB’s harmful anti-business regulations that would impose additional and excessive costs on American businesses, increase job loss, and further hinder economic growth. These provisions include: a prohibition on establishing micro-unions; a prohibition on eliminating secret ballot elections; a prohibition on “quick-snap elections”; and a prohibition on the implementation of “e-Card Check” which could promote coercion in union elections.
Social Security Administration (SSA) – The bill includes $10.7 billion to administer SSA activities, which is $287 million below fiscal year 2012.
There is no shortage of resources; The United States of America has a land mass of 3,717,813 square miles; the US government holds and controls around 30% of that land and buys more each year. That is equivalent to 1,115,344 square miles and is equal to the combined land masses of Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland, Greece, New Zealand, Ireland, Bahrain, Hong Kong, Liechtenstein, the Cayman Islands, Anguilla, and Bermuda.
I agree with you on the population issue and I think it is a problem because the planet is in no condition to sustain more people especially while the expansion of capitalism blindly destroys the land and resources in its pursuit of private profit.
I don't want you to pay for me. I want a share of land and resources so that I can care for myself - not to be forced out of my job, my home and driven into the streets and left desperate so that some may have more of the pie that I need to be only self sustaining.
Administration for Children and Families (ACF) - The bill includes language prohibiting funding for the “Healthy Foods Financing” initiative.
Administration on Aging (AoA) – The legislation funds AoA at $1.4 billion – $30 million below last year’s level and $537 million below the President’s budget request.
Department of Education – The bill funds the Department of Education at $70 billion, which is $1.1 billion below last year’s level and $2.9 billion below the budget request. The bill eliminates many duplicative, inefficient, or unauthorized education programs, including the Administration’s “Race to the Top” program. The bill also includes limitations that prohibit the Department of Education from moving forward with regulations that define “gainful employment” and “credit hour,” or dictates on how states must license institutions of higher education.
Title I Program –same as last year
Pell Grants – The maximum Pell Grant award is increased to $5,635, due to an authorized mandatory cost-of-living adjustment.
Special Education – Special Education grants to states are funded at $12.1 billion in the legislation – an increase of $500 million above last year’s level.
Appropriations Committee Releases the Fiscal Year 2013 Labor, Health and Human Services Funding Bill;
Defunding ObamaCare
Protecting Life – The bill contains several provisions to protect life, including continuations of all longstanding restrictions on abortion funding that have been included in the legislation in prior years. The legislation also contains language prohibiting funding for Planned Parenthood unless it certifies it will not provide abortions, a provision ensuring “conscience protections” for religious and charitable organizations, and the text of the “Abortion Non-Discrimination Act.”
Department of Labor (DoL) – The bill provides $12 billion for the Department of Labor, which is $497 million below last year’s level and $72 million below the President’s request.
Employment Training Administration (ETA) - a decrease of $269 million
Job Corps – $33 million above the President’s request
Veterans Employment and Training Service (VETS) – $3 million above the President’s request.
Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) –same as last year
Reducing Harmful Red Tape – A provision prohibiting the implementation of new H-2B Program regulations to reduce unnecessary requirements and excessive costs to participating employers.
prohibiting the continued development of the so-called “Companionship Exemption”
Health and Human Services – reduction of $1.3 billion
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) – $66 million above the fiscal year 2012 level.
Simple, and glad you asked. Tax the rich at Reagan-era rates, city , state and federal. Capital gains at the same rate as other income.