[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1363 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1363

                 To establish the GothamCorps program.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 5, 2009

  Mr. Weiner introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Education and Labor

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
                 To establish the GothamCorps program.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``GothamCorps Authorization Act of 
2009''.

SEC. 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.
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