Tag Archives: Orrin Hatch

03.19.09
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Senate HELP Committee Authorizes the Serve America Act

Update, April 21, 2009: President Obama signs the Serve America Act into law. To take effect October 1, 2009.

The Senate’s companion bill to the GIVE Act (which passed on the floor of the House yesterday) successfully moved out of committee yesterday and will likely be voted on by the entire Senate membership next week.

In the Senate yesterday, the Serve America Act (S.277) was unanimously approved by the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Similar to the GIVE Act, the Serve America Act seeks to expand national service and volunteer programs, to engage citizens in solving problems facing communities throughout the country.

In his State-of-the-Union-esque address to Congress last month, President Obama specifically asked congressional leaders to pass the Serve America Act introduced by Senators Kennedy (D-MA) and Hatch (R-UT). (Read also his TIME Article from today, calling for a “New Era of Service.”)

Read the joint press release (PDF) issued yesterday by Senators Kennedy (D-MA), Enzi (R-WY), Hatch (R-UT) and Mikulski (D-MD).

Read the amended Serve America Act (PDF) approved by the Senate HELP Committee.

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03.10.09
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Senate Hearing Today on the Kennedy-Hatch Serve America Act

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Shirley Sagawa

Update, April 21, 2009: President Obama signs the Serve America Act into law. To take effect October 1, 2009.

March 10th at 2:30 p.m. EST, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee will hold a hearing on S. 277, the bipartisan Serve America Act, introduced by Senators Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT).

Witnesses will include:

According to a statement released by Acting CEO of CNCS Nicola Goren, witness statements will be available when the hearing starts and the hearing will be streamed live over the Internet and archived for future viewing.  To watch, look for the Audio/Video Link on the HELP Committee Hearings page at 2:30 pm EST/11:30 am EST.

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09.12.08
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Service Nation Town Hall Meeting

Follow tweets by RocchiJulia.

Moderated by David Gergen, Senior Political Analyst at CNN and advisor to Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton. In his opening remarks, Gergen says this is the most hopeful movement he’s seen since the civil rights movement.

Participants include Lt Gen Ben Freakley, Vanessa Kirsch (New Profit, Inc.), Mallory Josol (City Year and Jumpstart alum), Michelle Nunn (Hands On Network), Usher (er, well, of Usher!).

Kirsch was part of the founding of Public Allies. Says Eli Segal would be proud of the bipartisan support of national service we have been witnessing during the Summit. Emphasis on public-private partnership. We can actually solve problems with the human capital invested through national service! Teach For America used to be a small idea, and now tens of thousands of top college graduates are applying. Need to scale up national service to meet the desire to serve.

Gergen: how do you mobilize this many people to sign up? (Kennedy and Hatch’s Serve America Act would authorize the funding of 250,000 national service slots.)

Michelle Nunn says Kennedy-Hatch bill includes many different types of service: national service, community volunteering, international service. Coalition includes all sectors, faith-based groups, and more to work together to “make the bill a reality.”

Usher: Youth have always been on the fore-front of change. Youth leaders need a sense of ownership. Incentives may include scholarships. (Soft spoken but then says he’s nervous! Audience cheers him on.) Youth are engaged by leaders who lead example. Not “this is what you should do” but “this is what we will do together.”

Mallory Josol: (She is so young, and so, so well-spoken!) It’s important to have leaders call on youth to serve, but it’s more important to live the example. Youth will answer the call to service if they know about the opportunities. Need is all over the country, youth are all over the country. Josol says she is from a zip code “of need.” You don’t have to be wealthy to serve.

Lt. Gen. Freakley: Programs, civilian or military, offer youth opportunities to serve and to realize their potential. Not organized on the internet! Have to get into social networking! Bring military retirees into the process: they can plan, they can execute, they can train!

Gergen: Where does government fit in?

Kirsch: Middle way. Not about big government or just the private sector. Government, philanthropists both partners. Citizens elevate programs, government invests. AmeriCorps is a network of organizations, succeeding with capital invested from the government. Not “big government.” Most organizations that receive AmeriCorps funding are otherwise private-sector funded for the most part.

Freakley: Move youth from entitlement to empowerment. We adults have given them a sense of entitlement. When they feel empowered, they will serve.

Participant: It’s a religious experience being here. Largest coalition of bipartisan support for service. Serve America Act is an appropriations bill. May compete with labor bill. Can we build an even broader coalition so that we don’t do harm but instead to good?

Participant: The U.S. Public Service Academy be successful? Will it compete with military service academies?

Freakley: Need Public Service Academy to train people to serve in public sector and alumni who can speak out for service.

Harris Wofford steps up to the microphone on the ballroom floor: The reason Kennedy and Shriver were confident that Peace Corps could grow to 100,000 is because the original CCC employed 500,000. AmeriCorps is primarily a nonprofit sector endeavor. Seed funding from government.

09.12.08
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Service Nation on Friday morning

John Bridgeland, President and CEO of Civic Enterprises kicks off the “party around service” with an enthusiastic crowd. Thanks leaders and organizers et al by name.

Film tribute to those whose lives were personally affected by the tragic events of Sept. 11th, 2001, created by the National September 11th Memorial and Museum.

National anthem! Melinda Doolittle from American Idol Season Six. BIG soft spot in my heart for Melinda Doolittle.

Vartan Gregorian, Service Nation Co-chair and President of the Carnegie Corporation speaks.  Giving is part of our culture. Low income families give four percent of income to charities. Three-quarters of Americans give an average of $1800. annually.  Democracy is not a spectator sport, we have to work to make it a success, we should praise people who serve as elected officials. Benefits of our society oblige us to return the favor. “It’s in giving that we receive” – St. Francis. Become a true citizen through giving. “Live out our passions lest we be judged as not having lived at all” (missed who the paraphrased quotation is from).

Laurie Tisch of the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund introduced NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Mayor Bloomberg speaks. “When you talk about volunteerism, America needs us,” including military service members who are putting their life on the line for us. We are the beneficiaries of their service. Their families suffer the loss. Service can respond to issues such as global warming. In NY they are planting a million trees. Converting city government, schools, own home to CFL bulbs.

First Lady Laura Bush speaks. Talks about engaging older adults volunteering by mentoring and tutoring youth. Cites examples of national service participants. “We can build an America with 100 million volunteers.” (I apologize for the brief paragraph but I inadvertently missed the first part of her talk. See the text from the White House Press Office. )

Hearing from representatives of different programs:

City Year Philadelphia alum Leon McClain speaks about regretful choices he made to give into peer pressure, and ended up with two bullets in his leg, but turned his life around when he joined City Year. Talks about a student Ray he worked with and the feeling of satisfaction he gets from knowing he made a difference.

Walter Atwood, alum of original Civilian Conservation Corps, upon which AmeriCorps*NCCC is based.

Antonio Ramirez, Youthbuild alum, crediting AmeriCorps with helping him become his family’s first Associates of Arts (AA) degree holder. Has an infant daughter, and he’s proud to be able to create a good future for her and his family.

Brianna O’Brien, Hands On Network staff who served in New Orleans after Katrina.

Carolyn Kennedy (daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy) introduced Orrin Hatch (R-UT). Kennedy’s uncle Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and Hatch have worked together on issues for a long time in the Senate together.

Hatch officially announced the bill this morning at the Service Nation Summit and spoke touchingly of his work with Kennedy across the aisle. The senators have worked together for a long time and Hatch’s affection for his friend was obvious and endearing. (Kennedy was convalescing at home.)

In a statement that drew enthusiastic applause, Hatch announced that both Senators McCain and Obama have signed on to co-sponsor the legislation! To the bi-partisan crowd, all supporters of national service, the support of both Presidential candidates means a lot. Hopes are high for national service and the next administration. Other co-sponsors include Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS), and RPCV Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT).

In an interview with Hatch after his speech, he addressed a question about the cost to government of national service. The bill, he said, “should please those who are concerned about cost.” He cited the relatively low cost of supporting trained volunteers compared to the cost of allowing high schoolers to drop out, and ignoring young people who have lost their role models to prison and worse fates. Further, according to Hatch, elevating these youth, educating them, and connecting them with job skills will serve the economy well, as will the creation of jobs, including in the energy industry.

After the morning line up of speakers, the gathering broke into panel discussions. See the schedule here.

See Change/Wire (the Service Nation blog) for notes on the Lunch. Follow RocchiJulia on Twitter for tweets.

09.11.08
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Kennedy-Hatch Serve America Act

Update, April 21, 2009: President Obama signs the Serve America Act into law. To take effect October 1, 2009.

Friday, Sept. 12, Senators Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) introduced new legislation called the “Serve Amerca Act” to expand national and community service opportunities. After the bill was introduced in the Senate, it was referred to the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee.

The legislation will seek to expand the number of national service participants to 250,000 (175,000 more than can be currently funded).

Themes include expanding opportunities for people to serve at every stage of life, and to use service to meet specific national challenges like natural disaster preparedness and response, high school drop out prevention, energy conservation and environmental stewardship, and health care and more jobs access for people with low-incomes. It includes the creation of a reserve corps of national service alumni who can be mobilized in the wake of a natural disaster.

The act seeks specific opportunities to serve for students, working adults, retirees, and “Americans of all ages.” A new benefit for older participants would be an education award transferable to grandchildren. Currently AmeriCorps members must use their Eli Segal Education Award on their own tuition or student loans.

The bill, if passed, would support social entrepreneurship through establishing a commission to look at cross-sector solutions to social problems, and to apply effective business practices in the nonprofit sector by establishing venture capital funds to increase its talent pool and efficacy.

Finally, the bill seeks to expand Volunteers for Prosperity, which fosters short-term international volunteer opportunities for United States professionals to serve in developing countries.

(The information here is a summary of a press release from Senator Kennedy‘s and Senator Hatch‘s offices.)

Update from the Service Nation Summit, Sept. 12, 2008:

Orrin Hatch officially announced the new Serve America Act bill this morning at the Service Nation Summit and spoke touchingly of his work with Ted Kennedy “across the aisle.” The senators have worked together for a long time and Hatch’s affection for his friend was obvious and endearing. (Senator Kennedy was convalescing at home.)

In a statement that drew enthusiastic applause, Hatch announced that both Senators McCain and Obama have signed on to co-sponsor the legislation! Other co-sponsors include Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY), RPCV Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS), and Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR). To the bi-partisan crowd gathered for the Summit, all supporters of national service, the support of both Presidential candidates means a lot. Hopes are high for national service and the next administration.

In an interview with Hatch after his speech, he addressed a question about the cost to government of national service. The bill, he said, “should please those who are concerned about cost.” He cited the relatively low cost of supporting trained volunteers compared to the cost of allowing high schoolers to drop out, and ignoring young people who have lost their role models to prison and worse fates. Further, according to Hatch, elevating these youth, educating them, and connecting them with job skills will serve the economy well, as will the creation of jobs, including in the energy industry.

Read the Press Release.

Read the executive summary of S.3487, The Serve America Act.

Read the entire bill (PDF) written by Emma Vadehra.

Read the opinion piece by Senators Kennedy and Hatch in TIME Magazine.