WEDNESDAY,JULY 23,2003
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN - 13
FEDERAL FUNDING
AmeriCorps volunteers lobby for more money
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - With up to 22,000 volunteer jobs at risk, AmeriCorps workers from around the country urged Congress yesterday to add $100 million to the agency's budget to preserve programs that help low-income children and families.
Standing across from the Capitol, a Roman Catholic nun from New York, a former volunteer from Nebraska, a program director from Tennessee and a Peace Corps volunteer-turned-legislator had stories to tell about the families they've counseled, the abused children they've mentored, the communities they've served.
The cuts, they said, would devastate them.
In Memphis, Michael Warr will have to drop 220 families from his home visitation program at the Porter-Leath Children's Center. Sister Mary Johnice Rzadkiewicz wondered who will take food to the homebound in Buffalo, N.Y., or give a helping hand to the homeless.
And in Bridgeport, Conn., Robert Francis will be forced to cut his staff of 55 AmeriCorps volunteers in his community organization down to 25, which he fears might be too few to run his Safe Neighborhood Partnership program with those few workers.
"Who will suffer now with these cutbacks?" said Sister Rzadkiewicz, who founded the Response to Love Center, a home for the needy in Buffalo. "The elderly, the homebound, the children, the poor—we can't let this happen," she said.
According to figures released by Ameri-Corps providers this week, states will lose an average of 54 percent of their volunteer
workers if the additional money is not approved.
The House Appropriations Committee defeated a move Monday to add $100 million to the program this year, but lawmakers hinted that the money might be restored during House and Senate conference negotiations on a disaster relief bill. The Senate included the AmeriCorps funding in its version of the disaster bill.
Some House members have been unhappy with the national service agency because of widespread mismanagement and the tendency to recruit thousands more volunteers than it can afford. President Bush endorsed the program and added money to his proposed 2004 budget to increase the number of volunteers.
Yesterday, Rep. Harold Ford, (D-Tennessee), said the money increase probably was a lost cause with GOP House leaders. But, he said, "the president can solve this. If the president says, 'I want this to happen,' it will happen."
Republican Rep. Christopher Shays of Connecticut, told the crowd of AmeriCorps advocates that simple audit problems should not tear down such a valuable program.
"Because some people have screwed up, we're going to kill this program? I don't think so. I don't think that's wise." said Shays, a former Peace Corps volunteer.
Forty-three governors sent a letter to Bush this week saying the cuts will "damage, if not destroy" programs that states and communities rely on.
AmeriCorps volunteers receive small stipends for the service, along with a scholarship of almost $5,000 to use for college or to pay off student loans.
Student starts time travel club; invents way to gauge success
NATION
AUSTIN, Texas - Turner Wright, a University of Texas aerospace engineering senior, is attempting to start a time travel club.
Wright said he first became interested in time travel when he saw the film Back to the Future.
Wright said he would not guarantee
"But here's a way to check if anyone in your family ever travels through time," he said. "Write a note to be handed down to your family's future descendants and set an appointment to meet. Then be there and wait."
that if he did achieve his dream of time travel, he would come back to visit one of the club's meetings.
— Todd Hilliard, Daily Texan via U-WIRE, The University of Texas-Austin
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