Summer of Service Legislation
Summer of Service Act of
2007
The
Summer of Service Act of 2007 was introduced
into Congress on What does the
bill do?
- Summer of Service creates a competitive grant program that enables states and localities to offer students making the transition from middle to high school an opportunity to participate in a structured community service program over the summer months.
- Summer of Service employs service-learning models to teach civic participation skills, help young people see themselves as resources to their communities, expand educational opportunities and discourage "summer academic slide."
- Summer of Service provides tangible benefits to the communities in which projects are performed by directing grantees to work on unmet human, educational, environmental and public safety needs.
- Summer of Service encourages all youth, regardless of age, income, or disability, to engage in community service.
-
Summer of Service grants educational
awards of up to $500
to students who complete 100 hours of service
in any given
summer.
-
Summer of Service funds both public
and private-sponsored
initiatives.
What does Summer of
Service Cost?
Summer of Service authorizes $100
million for fiscal year
2008, and such sums as necessary for
subsequent years.The Give
Act
In late 2007 the Summer of Service
concept was also
included in H.R.2857, the Generations Invigorating
Volunteerism and Education
(GIVE) Act, which reauthorizes the Corporation
for National and
Community Service (CNCS) along with its three
main programs: Americorps, Learn
and Serve America and Senior Corps. The
inclusion of Summer of Service in the
GIVE Act is a significant achievement and has
drawn even more attention to the
potential of Summer of Service as a
national rite of
passage.
Recent weeks have seen a
flurry of legislative
activity related to national service since the
GIVE Act was brought to the
House floor for a vote. On March 3rd,
the House leadership reserved floor time to
consider the bill and allow members
to offer amendments. On March 6th, Congress
spent more than
four hours debating H.R. 2857. During the
debate, several amendments to the
bill were approved by voice vote and the House
conducted roll call votes on
amendments filed by Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and
by Reps. Jay Inslee (D-WA) and
John Sarbanes (D-MD) among others. The Flake
amendment, which was defeated, sought to
strike
funding for the Summer of Service. The
Inslee/Sarbanes amendment sought to
establish an Energy Conservation Corps and was
approved by a recorded vote of
252 to 161. In addition to Summer of Service,
ICP has
supported efforts to
create a national service program to address
climate change. Thus we were
pleased to have contributed to both the
approval of the Inslee/Sarbanes
Amendment and the defeat of the Flake
Amendment.
The amendment to
include an Energy Conservation
Corps was supported by a broad coalition of
energy conservation, youth service,
and environmental justice organizations. As a
part of this coalition, ICP
has
supported the call for a national Clean Energy
Corps (CEC) that would vastly
expand green collar job opportunities for the
working class and poor, expand green
service opportunities for all citizens to
combat global warming, and
demonstrate the promise of a clean energy
future. CEC members would engage in a
wide range of useful work to reduce national
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions,
with a particular emphasis on improving energy
efficiency in neglected communities.
The Energy Conservation Corps amendment would
authorize a pilot program to
demonstrate the efficacy of this new and
innovative stream of national
service.
However,
before a vote was held on the GIVE Act, the
debate ended when a “Motion to
Recommit” forced George Miller, Chairman of
the House Education and Labor
Committee, to pull the bill off the floor. A
“Motion to Recommit” is a
parliamentary procedure reserved by tradition
for the Minority party. If
exercised, the motion can recommit the bill to
the committee of origin and
prevent a final vote on passage. In order to
circumvent the “Motion to Recommit,”
the Act was brought back to the floor of the
House on March 11th "under
suspension of the rules" as a new bill (H.R.
5563) which incorporated the
amendments passed to H.R. 2857. The purpose of
considering bills “under
suspension” is to dispose of non-
controversial measures expeditiously. However,
on March 12th, when H.R. 5563 was
again given consideration on the
floor, it was defeated by a recorded vote of
277 - 140. Since the Act was
considered under suspension, the legislation
needed a two-thirds majority to
pass. Disappointingly, the bill fell one vote
short of meeting the required
margin.
Despite
this setback, ICP is grateful for the 277
members who voted in favor of
the GIVE Act and demonstrated their commitment
to national service. ICP would
also like to recognize the hard work of
Chairman George Miller (D-CA),
Representative Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY),
Representative Todd Platts (R-PA), and
the leadership of the National Service
Congressional Caucus for their
commitment to reauthorizing the national
service programs.
The
latest round of legislative activity
demonstrates the clear and substantial
support that the Summer of Service enjoys in
Congress and among champions of
national service. ICP and its network of
allies and supporters are determined
to keep up the pressure in Congress and ensure
the eventual passage of Summer
of Service and the Clean Energy
Corps.