Today the House will answer his call. The GIVE Act will help our country get through this crisis. It recognizes that service is a deeply ingrained American value.

We consider this bill at a time when our nation faces enormous challenges. Families are losing jobs, health care, child care, and other key services. Schools and colleges are seeing their budgets evaporate.

Our public needs are growing while our resources for meeting them are disappearing.

This legislation will make Americans a part of the solution to getting our country back on track.

Service is the lifeblood of this country. We have seen this throughout history. In times of crisis, Americans stand up to help.

We saw this during World Wars I and II, when the Red Cross helped soldiers, their families, and returning veterans and later led relief efforts during the Great Depression. 

We saw this after September 11th, when our citizens, young and old, sprung to action to help their fellow neighbors.

We saw this in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, when volunteers were on the ground before the federal government.

They were a beacon of hope amidst serious despair. Today, volunteers continue to play a huge role in Gulf Coast relief efforts.

We’ve seen this in my state of California, where communities have been ravaged by floods, earthquake and wildfires.

And we saw this last June, when floods devastated homes and businesses in southeast Iowa. Even before the storms came, volunteers were there. To date, AmeriCorps has coordinated over 800,000 volunteer hours in Iowa.

Volunteers play many roles. They teach in our classrooms, clean up our trails, build and weatherize homes, shelter the homeless and feed the hungry. All the while, they learn valuable skills that will help them throughout their lives.

Interest in service is growing. In 2008, more than 61 million Americans spent over eight billion hours volunteering.

More than a quarter of Americans over the age of 16 have volunteered.

In 2008, Teach for America, an AmeriCorps program which recruits teachers to high-need schools, saw its highest number of applicants.

These are students who are often recruited by leading firms, but instead decide to teach in some of our most impoverished and rural communities.

Service also yields impressive economic returns.

In 2006, Americans who served generated benefits worth $158 billion.

A cost-benefit analysis of AmeriCorps shows that every $1 invested can produce almost $4 in returns.

In Denver, the Mile High Youth Corps, half of whom are high school dropouts, perform energy audits and retrofits that save families $110 a year in utility bills. 

In Louisiana, the Saint Bernard Project, a volunteer program that rebuilds homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, will welcome their 200th family back to a home today.

The GIVE Act will renew America at a time when our citizens and our communities want to help. It will create a continuum of service for Americans of all ages, from middle school through retirement.

It builds on the effective service initiatives out there today. It establishes service corps targeting critical needs by:

Boosting student achievement in low-income communities; improving energy-efficiency, which saves families and taxpayers money, while introducing Americans to green jobs; providing services and care to veterans; expanding access to affordable health care coverage.

A big focus throughout this bill is education. We think this is the right way to leverage our young people’s interest in service, and to help them get a good education.

In exchange for doing a term or a year of service, middle school, high school and college age students can earn money to pay for college or repay debt.

Another big focus of this bill is our veterans. Many members of our armed forces or the National Guard are already volunteering abroad as engineers, electricians and plumbers.

It’s time to create more opportunities that harness the skills they’ve fine-tuned abroad for the public good here at home.

And this legislation puts seniors and retirees at the front lines of service. Seniors are already making enormous volunteer contributions.

In this economy, with incomes and retirement savings plummeting, many seniors may need additional income after they retire, or need to learn new skills to re-enter the workforce. This bill gives them that chance.

Ultimately, this legislation is about the American community.

Service dots the entire American landscape.

Go into any neighborhood, and you’ll find Americans of all ages, races, religions and backgrounds coming together to change lives.

As Richard Stengell, of Time recently told our committee, “At a time like this, service is not a luxury but an effort that can help us rebuild, restore confidence and prepare for the future.”

Service is an American value. Our President recognizes that we should be tapping into this at a pivotal moment.

I’d like to thank Congresswoman McCarthy, Congressman McKeon and his staff, and our colleagues on the committee for all their hard work on this legislation.

I’d also like to thank Denise Forte, Stephanie Moore, Alex Ceja, Margaret Young, Fred Jones, Melissa Salmanowitz and Jessica Kahanek on my staff for their tireless efforts.

I urge my colleagues, in the spirit of bipartisanship to support this bill.

“Employees deserve a fair choice, not a false choice, when it comes to their rights in the workplace and on matters that affect their livelihoods and their futures. Restoring employee choice is an important priority for this Congress and one we will look to act on quickly.”

Majority Leader Hoyer's website »