Clinton Pushes AmeriCorps Expansion

President Clinton urged Congress on Wednesday to expand his AmeriCorps volunteerism program, saying young people deserve an opportunity to prove they are not “a generation of cynics and slackers.”

In a rally at the University of Maryland, the president said the number of AmeriCorps volunteers could increase by 25% if his fiscal 2000 budget proposal is approved. He said he wants to expand the program every year until it has 100,000 participants by 2003.

AmeriCorps could then be a springboard for volunteerism at home, much like the Peace Corps was for service overseas a generation ago, Clinton said.

“America needs to think of itself as sort of a giant AmeriCorps, the Peace Corps at home, getting things done together,” Clinton said. “It may be your best chance to change the lives of others for the better and to enrich your own life in the process.”

Clinton, joined by dozens of AmeriCorps volunteers in gray sweatshirts, issued a national “call to service” to help the program begin recruiting additional volunteers.

“I ask you all to help me reach others . . . to use this moment to prove that this generation of young people, far from being a generation of cynics and slackers, is instead a generation of doers and patriots,” Clinton said.