California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) says his state will file a lawsuit to stop the Trump administration from dismantling the federal AmeriCorps service program.
“We’ve gone from the New Deal, the New Frontier, and the Great Society to a federal government that gives the middle finger to volunteers serving their fellow Americans,” Newsom said in a statement. “We will sue to stop this.”
The governor, in a post on social platform X, added that efforts to shutter the service program “threaten vulnerable Californians, disaster response and recovery, and economic opportunities.”
The Trump administration, with direction from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), began the process of winding down the existing community service program this month, putting most AmeriCorps full-time staffers on administrative leave Wednesday and pulling volunteers from their field posts. Roughly $250 million in AmeriCorps contracts also have been canceled, according to a Fox News report citing an unnamed official in the administration.
The official told the outlet that AmeriCorps will be gutted and recreated to focus on Trump’s agenda.
The administration effectively shuttered the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) using a similar maneuver.