September 12, 2008
Senator Hatch Elaborates on Plans for National-Service Bill
By Suzanne Perry
New York
Sen. Orrin Hatch provided further details on Friday of the bill he is sponsoring with Sen. Edward Kennedy to expand the country’s national-service programs.
Speaking at the second day of the ServiceNation Summit, a gathering of nonprofit, business, and government leaders to discuss public service, the Utah Republican said the new programs would cost $5-billion over five years.
The Serve America Act would more than triple the number of participants in federal national-service programs and set aside money to help nonprofit groups recruit volunteers and develop innovative social programs.
“While many charities believe volunteers are essential to meeting their missions, a smaller percentage of them actually invest in recruiting, training, and utilizing volunteers to meet those missions,” he said.
The bill’s Volunteer Generation Fund would match, dollar for dollar, money provided by private sources to help nonprofit groups increase their capacity to use volunteers, he said.
Supporting ‘Innovation’
He said the bill would also create “innovation fellowships” and a Community Solutions Fund to “foster and support the next generation of great ideas in the social marketplace.”
He cited nonprofit public-service programs — including Teach for America, City Year, Habitat for Humanity, and the U.S. Dream Academy — as examples of innovative programs.
The legislation would also create “Encore Fellowships” for people age 50 and older who do public-service work and give them education grants that they could transfer to their children or grandchildren.
And it would create a “civic health index” to collect regular data on volunteering, charitable giving, and other activities.
Mr. Hatch said the $5-billion would be offset by cuts in other areas or new revenue raised from other sources.
An aide said Senator Hatch and Senator Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat who co-sponsored the bill, would consult on ways to pay for the programs before the legislation is considered by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.
Senator Kennedy, chairman of that committee, was unable to attend the event because he is undergoing treatment for a malignant brain tumor. Caroline Kennedy, his niece and a co-chair of the public-service conference, stood in for him and introduced Senator Hatch.
Mr. Hatch said he wanted to sponsor legislation to promote national service because he was worried that the “renewed spirit in the country” following the September 11 terrorist attacks had faded.
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It seems to me that shoring up and expanding the service programs we already have, such as Peace Corps, Americorps and Teach for America, would be a better use of scarce federal funds than a new infrastructure for programs and more data collection.
— A Braestrup Sep 17, 10:56 AM #