A federal court has ordered the Trump administration to restore AmeriCorps funding to states that had been terminated in April. The ruling comes as part of a lawsuit filed by 24 states and the District of Columbia.
AmeriCorps is a federal agency focused on national service and volunteerism, with its members engaged in activities such as disaster recovery, mentoring students, and assisting veterans and military families.
The April 29 lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland against AmeriCorps regarding the latest funding and staffing decision.
The states blamed the Trump administration for engaging in “unprecedented efforts to unilaterally dismantle federal programs, spending, and personnel without Congressional approval.”
“Now this campaign has reached AmeriCorps,” they said in the filing.
The lawsuit complained about three actions taken by AmeriCorps in April: putting all members serving in the National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) on administrative leave, placing 85 percent of its staff members on administrative leave, and cutting almost $400 million worth of AmeriCorps programs to states.
“Defendants’ actions reflect and embody an unauthorized decision by the Administration to dismantle AmeriCorps,” the complaint said, adding that the decision “violates the Constitution’s separation of powers.”
The actions inflict “immediate and irreparable harms on the Plaintiff States, their residents, and the public at large,” it said.
On June 5, the court issued an order partly siding with the plaintiffs, prohibiting AmeriCorps from enforcing the decision to remove NCCC members from service, as well as the decision to terminate grants.
It instructed AmeriCorps to restore all grants that were terminated in plaintiff states and to restore NCCC members to their status quo.
However, the court denied the plaintiffs’ request to vacate the order that put AmeriCorps’ staff on administrative leave and the subsequent Reduction in Force efforts of the agency.
According to the lawsuit, AmeriCorps supported more than 200,000 members and volunteers who received stipends and other benefits. It was managed by a staff of around 700 workers.
AmeriCorps had rejected the claims put forward by the states in a May 13 court filing.
Plaintiffs cannot challenge AmeriCorps’ decision to release NCCC members from service since implementation of the NCCC program is “left entirely to agency discretion,” the organization said.
Moreover, the states cannot challenge AmeriCorps’ workforce reduction decisions as it has no right to do so as per rules set by Congress, it added.
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