Remarks on the first anniversary of AmeriCorps and an exchange with reporters

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Sept 18, 1995

September 12, 1995

The President. I am glad to be here today with Senator Pell, Congressman Reed, Congressman Kennedy, Eli Segal, Senator Wofford, and the remarkable representative group of leaders from the State of Rhode Island, including leaders of the majority of the institutions of higher education there; business leaders, Mr. Fish, Mr. Romney, thank you for coming from Massachusetts; and young AmeriCorps volunteers; and of course, Senator Wofford. And Nick Lowry has been a great supporter of AmeriCorps from its beginning.

We are here to mark AmeriCorps' first year of accomplishment and to find ways to make it better in the second year when 25,000 Americans will be out serving their country and earning some money for their higher education.

AmeriCorps members have helped children to do better in school. They've helped to close crack houses. They've helped communities team up with police to keep themselves safe. They've cleaned mountain trails and urban waterways. And from Oklahoma City to south Florida, from the banks of the Mississippi to the streets of Los Angeles, whenever our people were faced with disaster in these last couple of years, AmeriCorps members have been there to help.

AmeriCorps has truly brought out the best in America. Behind this success is a partnership that cuts across every line and sector in our country, where young people and others who work in the communities, leaders in business, education, community service, and public service, work together to make lives better for ordinary Americans.

AmeriCorps members help our Nation as they help themselves. They earn money to help pay for college. And of course, some colleges are going even further. The Rhode Island colleges and universities here represented and those who are not here will be matching AmeriCorps scholarships and college loan repayments. And I want to thank all of them.

Meanwhile, CEO's, like Mitt Romney of Bain Capital in Boston, have urged others to follow their examples of support for AmeriCorps participation. Foundations like the Ford Foundation, which has contributed $3 million as a challenge pool to community foundations, have also helped to stretch our Federal investment.

An investment in AmeriCorps goes far. A team of noted conservative economists found recently that every dollar of Federal money invested returns at least $1.60 to $2.60, and maybe even more, for the taxpayers in public benefits. And of course, that doesn't calculate the long-term benefit of the increased education of the young people who participate in AmeriCorps. AmeriCorps is about personal responsibility and community, about giving young people positive avenues to opportunity.

Now, the majority in Congress threatens to cut college scholarships and college loans and AmeriCorps. But in AmeriCorps we have a program that lifts our values and solves our problems; it helps send civic-minded, hardworking young people to college. That's the kind of thing America should do to build up and not tear down.

Tens of thousands of young Americans are lining up to serve their country in AmeriCorps. And I don't want Congress to close the door on them. I want the Republican majority to learn what the rest of our country now knows. Without regard to party, AmeriCorps works. If the congressional majority really wants to build more personal responsibility and expand opportunity only for those who are willing to help themselves, if they really want to rebuild a sense of community in America, then their principles and our common future should be put above politics. AmeriCorps should grow. It should not die.

I want to reemphasize that it is not necessary to balance the budget to destroy AmeriCorps or even to cut it in half. It is absolutely not necessary. This is a good program, and I think we'll be around next year to celebrate the second anniversary and look toward the third year, thanks to people like all of you around this room. I thank you very, very much.

Q. Mr. President, do you think that the Republicans want to end the program simply because it's so closely associated with you and because it has been one of your head programs?

The President. I don't think they'd be that small. I think that would be an incredibly small thing to do. I don't think they'd be that small. You know, I don't speculate on people's motives. But I believe that some people in the Congress really don't believe that any spending program is as good as any tax cut. That's what I think. I think that--and I believe that any new thing that's been done--I happen to have been President the last 2 years--I think any new thing that's been done is in their mind an easy thing to eliminate if you want to balance the budget. But it is not necessary. We have given them a balanced budget plan. They don't have to cut this to balance the budget. This is a tiny, tiny budget item that does an enormous amount of good.

Q. They say that--[inaudible]--to the GAO report, I think, that's out now that shows that the amount of money that's actually spent per volunteer is a lot more than the $4,000 that the White House says--