AmeriCorps teams in New York and Long Island pulled out as service agency is dismantled

For the past few years, an AmeriCorps team based in Iowa arrived at the expansive Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park in Oyster Bay for a month or two as part of the team's nearly yearlong national service term.

The young people removed thousands of pounds of debris and invasive species, preserved artifacts and assisted with community events, adding to the botanical appeal of the more than 400-acre site, even as they plotted out their life goals, Planting Fields Foundation said.

But not this year. The team's AmeriCorps program — the National Civilian Community Corps — had its participants placed on leave as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to downsize the government. Without the program's help, it will be hard to keep their conservation efforts going, according to Planting Fields Foundation.

"Many of those efforts will now be postponed until we can either launch a program of our own or secure the staff capacity needed to take them on," Rebecca Slagle, sustainability coordinator at Planting Fields Foundation, said in an emailed statement.

The program's loss comes as the Trump administration makes deep cuts in grants and contracts from the agency, created by Congress in 1993. The agency enrolls more than 200,000 volunteers annually to work in areas such as conservation, disaster relief, the opioid crisis and education.

On Tuesday, New York Attorney General Letitia James and a bloc of 24 other states filed a federal lawsuit against the agency, seeking to end its dismantling. The lawsuit argues the agency "flouts Congress’s creation of AmeriCorps" and seizes the body’s "power of the purse."

In New York, the agency halted 40 programs, leading to terminations for more than 1,200 AmeriCorps members, the lawsuit said.

Congress appropriated about $1 billion to AmeriCorps for fiscal year 2024, which included funding for an anti-poverty volunteer program and another for senior volunteers, according to the federal lawsuit.

"AmeriCorps volunteers and staff represent what’s best about our country: a spirit of service and commitment to others that we need now more than ever," James said in a Tuesday statement. "The Trump administration’s illegal attempt to gut AmeriCorps will hurt this program which promotes civic pride and public service."

AmeriCorps, the lawsuit said, administers several programs such as the National Civilian Community Corps and the Volunteers in Service to America, which work to reduce poverty. Yet most of its funding supports programs controlled by nonprofits, local government and higher learning institutions, the lawsuit said.

The state Commission on National and Community Service manages several of the agency’s programs in New York, including some that support veterans and conservation, according to the attorney general’s release.

But in April, 85% of the agency’s paid staff were placed on leave, the lawsuit said. The agency also canceled roughly $400 million in grants, which make up about 40% of its budget, court documents show.

As a result, programs providing food or other services have had to weigh whether they can continue helping without the federal funding, the AG’s office said.

AmeriCorps did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

But an April email from the interim head of AmeriCorps, Jennifer Bastress Tahmasebi, cited in the lawsuit, said the agency officials had been working with the Department of Government Efficiency "to cut staff, contracts, contractors, and agency deliverables."

The email also said she cut contracts that were "duplicative of work staff should have been doing."

Officials at Planting Fields are trying to make up for what was lost. They are exploring alternative funding sources and developing a similar service-learning program, the Planting Fields Foundation said in the email.

"Our dedication to preserving Planting Fields as a space for education, sustainability, and community engagement is unwavering, and we are working creatively to ensure the continuity of our programs even in the face of this uncertainty," Gina Wouters, president and CEO at Planting Fields Foundation, said in a statement.

By Tiffany Cusaac-Smith

tiffany.cusaac-smith@newsday.com@T_Cusaac

Tiffany Cusaac-Smith is a general assignment reporter for Newsday. She previously worked at USA TODAY and is an alum of Howard University.