The House and Senate approved President Obama's $3.5 trillion budget yesterday on a strictly party-line vote. That not a single Republican dared to break ranks underscored how difficult it will be for Obama to change the political tone in Washington.
But Congress did have one big post-partisan moment this week. By overwhelming margins (79-19 in the Senate, 275-149 in the House), lawmakers passed the Serve America Act, which would dramatically expand opportunities for Americans to serve their country.
If you didn't hear the news, it's little wonder. The political media was preoccupied with far weightier matters, like whether or not Michele Obama breached protocol by draping her arm around Queen Elizabeth.
That's too bad, because national service is one of those rare public enterprises that actually unites Americans and encourages them to think not just about themselves but about the obligations they owe each other as citizens. It's also a way for our country to mobilize volunteers to tackle common problems that neither the market nor the government is capable of solving alone. And occasions when Congress manages to rise above partisan rancor to put the nation's interests first are infrequent enough to merit attention, and praise.
So let's salute President Obama, who urged adoption of the bill shortly after taking office, as well as the bill's lead architects, Sens. Ted Kennedy (the new law bears his name) and Orrin Hatch, as well as their House counterparts. Honorable mentions too for Sens. Evan Bayh and John McCain, who in introducing a similar bill during the Bush years played a crucial role in expanding political support for national service. President Clinton, of course, started the whole national-service push with his AmeriCorps initiative, and the bill incorporates measures championed by both Presidents Bush.
The Serve America Act also achieves goals long advocated by the Progressive Policy Institute. Most important, it would begin taking national service to truly national scale, by gradually enlarging AmeriCorps from 75,000 to 250,000 members a year. At the same time, it focuses volunteers on very specific national needs, creating four new dedicated service corps for energy efficiency and conservation; education; health care; and veterans. In keeping with our vision of national service as a "civilian GI bill," the law also raises the education scholarship full-time volunteers earn to $5,350.
The bill aims to bolster civic or non-profit sector groups by creating Serve America fellowships, which would allow volunteers to serve in community-based organizations. Recognizing that retiring baby boomers represent an enormous and thus far untapped reservoir of talent and experience, Serve America would offer Americans aged 55 and over the chance to earn "Silver Scholarships" of up to $1,000 for 350 hours of service. Alternatively, they could transfer these awards to a child or grandchild to help pay for college.
An especially intriguing innovation is a new Community Solutions Fund that will award matching grants to social entrepreneurs aiming to marshal volunteer energies to tackle community problems. Many of our leading service organizations that operate under the AmeriCorps umbrella -- Teach for America, City Year, Citizen Schools, Jump Start, and more -- were launched by such social entrepreneurs.
Although it didn't get the attention it deserved, passage of the Serve America bill is a major breakthrough. It enables us to build a uniquely American approach to public problem solving that has proven its worth over the past 15 years in communities across the country. It multiplies opportunities for people to give back to their communities while earning money to pay for their education. It establishes a growth trajectory that eventually could move national service from the margins to the center of our national life, where it belongs.
