President Donald Trump is about to take an axe to yet another Democrat-established agency.
This time, it is a Clinton-era agency, AmeriCorps.
When Trump was running for office, he made no qualms about the fact that he wanted to downsize the federal government.
Currently, the federal government is the largest employer in the country. And rest assured, that is not what our Founding Fathers had in mind.
Trump has already taken a chainsaw to several agencies, with USAID among the first to be targeted.
The president also issued an order to fire all probationary employees. And while I firmly agreed with downsizing, I disagreed with blanket firings, as I believe their respective directors and secretaries should evaluate everyone and every position, then make the decision on cuts based on ability and need.
AmeriCorps was formed in 1993 during the Clinton administration.
Numerous programs and agencies fall under this umbrella, such as the AmeriCorps VISTA, AmeriCorps NCCC, AmeriCorps State and National, AmeriCorps Seniors, and the Volunteer Generation Fund.
This agency actually has its roots in the George H. W. Bush administration, which signed the National and Community Service Act of 1990.
In 1993, several programs were merged, with AmeriCorps coming out on the other side of it.
Once again, Trump has decided to downsize an agency, all but shuttering AmeriCorps.
Reports surfaced on Thursday that 535 of the 700 full-time AmeriCorps employees were placed on leave. The administration also reportedly canceled about $250 million in contracts.
The agency will not be shut down, but the Trump administration is expected to overhaul it, basically cleaning house and starting anew. The primary reason for this is that the agency receives approximately $1 billion per year, yet it has not passed an audit for nearly a decade, similar to the issues at the Pentagon.
Rep. Burgess Owens (R-UT) has been after the agency for some time, and now he is finally getting his wish. He stated, "It makes no sense to expand this agency or give it more money when it continuously fails to meet basic accountability standards. Every time its representatives come before this Committee, AmeriCorps assures us that they will implement reforms, and year after year, nothing changes." I completely agree. It is about time we hold these people accountable for misusing taxpayer dollars.
