110 HR 2969 IH: GothamCorps Authorization Act of U.S. House of Representatives 2007-07-10 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

I 110th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 2969 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES July 10, 2007 Mr. Weiner introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and Labor A BILL To establish the GothamCorps program.

1.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the GothamCorps Authorization Act of 2007.

2.

GothamCorps

(a)

Program established

From amounts made available in the National Service Trust to carry out this section, the Corporation for National and Community Service shall carry out a program, to be known as the GothamCorps program, under which the Corporation makes grants to units of local government for use by the unit of local government to carry out volunteer projects. (b)

Selection criteria and volunteer benefits

The program shall use the same selection criteria and provide the same volunteer benefits as under the AmeriCorps State and National program. (c)

Funding

There are authorized to be appropriated to the National Service Trust to carry out this section $260,000,000 for each fiscal year. (d)

Allocation of grants

For each fiscal year, amounts under the program shall be allocated as follows: (1)The first $150,000,000 shall be divided equally into six grants, to be made on a competitive basis to units of local government with populations of more than 100,000. (2)The remaining amounts shall be divided into other grants as the Corporation considers appropriate, to be made on a competitive basis to units of local government with populations of not more than 100,000. (e)

Local funding

A unit of local government shall provide to each participant in the volunteer project, in addition to the benefit provided to the participant from grant funds, an amount equal to the cost of one year’s tuition at a local public college. Amounts so provided may be derived from the unit of local government itself or from third-party funds. (f)

Focus

A unit of local government shall designate an issue of primary focus for the volunteer project and shall dedicate the efforts of the project to addressing that issue. (g)

Non-displacement

A unit of local government shall ensure that the participants in the project do not perform jobs that would otherwise be performed by full-time employees. (h)

Administration

A unit of local government may use one or more outside persons or entities to administer the volunteer project. In such a case, the unit of local government shall designate a single person to serve as the head of administration. (i)

Administrative costs

The grant amounts provided under the program shall include amounts to provide benefits to participants and amounts for the administration of the volunteer project. (j)

Accountability

A unit of local government shall institute explicit, measurable goals for assessing whether the volunteer project is successful. (k)

Scholarship limitation

Scholarships to institutions of higher education to which the unit of local government does not contribute funds shall not exceed 50 percent of the scholarship funds disbursed in a given year.