1. United States
2. Ariz.
3. Letter

News broke yesterday that the current administration has now directed the discontinuation of the volunteer service of 2,000 AmeriCorp workers in vital community work across the nation before the completion of their programs. AmeriCorp has provided free volunteer services to community organizations, nonprofits, and FEMA for 30 years, making our national response to natural disasters and community needs more nimble, sustainable, and affordable for decades. To be clear, terminating volunteer workers is not efficiency. Young Americans providing unpaid labor while earning only experience and an education certificate is the kind of civic engagement we have long sought to foster in our families, communities, and nation. Whatever this administration and its unchartered, uncommissioned “department of government efficiency” purports to be doing, this mass firing of volunteers is a clear indication that it is in fact seeking to dismantle functioning government systems. That is a danger to all of us. Investigate this dismantling of AmeriCorp, the reduced readiness it creates for American disaster response, and the pattern of dismantling functioning systems created by Congress. Congress is only a co-equal branch when it exercises its coequal authority.