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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Thousands of young workers assigned to disaster response, conservation projects and other community service programs across the United States were sent home this week as part of the Trump administration‘s latest efforts to cut the size of the federal government.
AmeriCorps’ National Civilian Community Corps discharged workers on April 15 in an email obtained by USA TODAY. The message says DOGE cost cutting initiatives impacted its “ability to sustain program operations.” Members have been placed into administrative hold and will be formally dismissed on April 30.
The firings didn’t only apply to the cross-country program. On April 16, hundreds of staff in AmeriCorp’s Washington, D.C. headquarters were placed on paid administrative leave, according to reports from the Washington Post and Politico.
The moves come as top Trump ally Elon Musk has led the president’s signature efforts to slash the size of the federal bureaucracy. Musk’s DOGE has fired tens of thousands of federal employees since the beginning of Trump’s second term, prompting a legal fight over roles across the nation’s massive government.
USA TODAY has reached out to AmeriCorps for comment.
Here’s what to know about the program and what the cuts could mean.
What is AmeriCorps?
AmeriCorps was created in 1993 by the Clinton administration to build on service programs created in the wake of the Great Depression.
Each year, it sends more than 2,000 young adults between the ages of 18-26 to work with nonprofits and government organizations, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency and National Forestry Service, for 10–11-month long programs.
They’re charged with helping community organizations on projects related to land conservation, disaster relief, education, housing and development. In exchange, the agency pays for members’ housing, meals and health benefits. It also pays them a living allowance and awards them $7,000 for educational expenses once they have completed the program.
AmeriCorps estimates that more than 1.25 million Americans have served in the NCCC program across 36,000 locations.
The Trump administration in an April 17 comment called AmeriCorps a “target-rich environment for President Trump’s agenda to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse,” pointing to its audit failures in recent years.
NCCC funding totaled nearly $38 million in the last fiscal year, according to the Associated Press.
What types of work does AmeriCorps do?
NCCC workers are often sent to support nonprofits, schools and community organizations with long-term projects, including building homes and serving in local food banks
They also help with recovery efforts after national disasters.
For instance, Stephan Edgar, 31, said he assisted with rebuilding efforts in Paradise, California, during his 2020 stint in the program. The town still had a sense of “emptiness” when his team arrived two years after the deadliest wildfires in the state’s history flattened the community.
Edgar said they helped clear debris that could spark future fires and helped hand out food to local residents, among other tasks. Pulling out vegetation in 100-degree heat was one of the “most grueling experiences,” he told USA TODAY. But he said it gave him the real-world practice he needed to work in emergency management.
Edgar now serves as the strategic resilience and preparedness manager at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he said his experience with AmeriCorps has informed his approach to wildfire evacuation planning, and other planning.
What do these cuts mean?
Edgar told USA TODAY that his younger brother was working on a FEMA project helping Hurricane Helene victims in North Carolina when he got a notice to return home earlier this week. It was unclear on Thursday what the loss of workers in the region would mean for recovery efforts there.
In other parts of the country, the ramifications were immediately apparent.
A Wisconsin Habitat for Humanity chapter told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that they would need to regroup and come up with a plan b after losing an expected crew of eight to 10 AmeriCorps workers. They were going to be enlisted to build veterans and workforce housing this summer.
“In the long term, you’ve kind of just dismissed a bunch of people who are really passionate about the most underserved communities across the United States,” Edgar said.
It’s not the first time the community service organization has faced GOP criticism – or scrutiny from a Trump administration. The president also proposed cuts to AmeriCorps in 2017, during his first term.
“It is not a core function of the federal government to promote volunteerism, and therefore, these programs should be eliminated,” the Trump administration wrote at the time. “To the extent these activities have value, they should be supported by the private and nonprofit sectors.”
Contributing: Mary Spicuzza, Tamia Fowlkes and Madeline Heim; USA TODAY NETWORK