Pa., N.J., and other states reach settlement that limits Trump changes to AmeriCorps
AmeriCorps must provide at least 30 days notice before making changes to its services, and the settlement protects funding for the organization through fiscal year 2026.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and 24 other state leaders have reached a settlement in a federal lawsuit that keeps President Donald Trump’s administration from making significant changes to AmeriCorps without prior warning and justification.
The settlement announced last week stipulates that AmeriCorps must provide at least 30 days notice before making changes to its services, and protects funding for the organization through fiscal year 2026. The settlement comes more than a year after Shapiro and other governors and state attorneys general challenged a 2025 move to discontinue about $400 million worth of AmeriCorps programs and wipe out a vast majority of the organization’s staff.
Created in 1993, AmeriCorps is a federal community service program that oversees thousands of volunteers, and acts as a domestic version of the Peace Corps. It provides services including natural disaster relief with the Red Cross, builds homes with Habitat for Humanity, and provides instructors in underserved schools, among other assignments.
The lawsuit’s outcome, Shapiro said in a statement, protects “critical funding the Commonwealth relies on to help communities respond to natural disasters, support seniors and veterans, keep our trails clean, and teach children to read.”
Previously, a federal court ordered the Trump administration to reinstate the terminated AmeriCorps programs, and the Office of Budget Management agreed to release about $184 million in funds to programs around the country, said New Jersey State Attorney General Jennifer Davenport in statement. Davenport, who is part of the coalition of lawmakers in the lawsuit, said AmeriCorps members work “as critical volunteers in our communities.”
“While this disruption never should have happened in the first place, I am pleased that by uniting together, states were able to not only stop these unannounced and drastic cuts to these important programs, but also to take steps to prevent this from happening again,” Davenport said.
The lawsuit was filed in April 2025, after the Department of Government Efficiency recalled hundreds of members of the organization’s National Civilian Community Corps and placed a majority of its federal employees on administrative leave. DOGE also ordered AmeriCorps to terminate grants to more than 1,000 community service programs nationwide, including several in Pennsylvania.
Now, under the settlement, AmeriCorps has said that it “does not anticipate mass terminating grants on a scale comparable to what happened in Spring 2025,” or conducting mass layoffs during fiscal year 2026. If those actions, among others, were to take place, it must provide the coalition of state lawmakers who brought the lawsuit with at least 30 days’ notice, and explain its legal authority to make the changes.
Additionally, the settlement pauses litigation in the lawsuit through February, after which point the case will be dismissed so long as the terms of the agreement are upheld, Shapiro’s office said in a statement.
In Pennsylvania, PennSERVE is the designated state service commission for AmeriCorps, and it distributes about $16 million in federal money annually to more than two dozen programs, Shapiro’s office said. There were 655 active AmeriCorps volunteers serving in 41 county’s across the state at time the grant terminations were announced.
“The federal government made a commitment with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to support these programs,” Shapiro said. “It’s my job as Governor to protect the interest of Pennsylvania taxpayers — and this settlement agreement ensures that these programs are protected for another year.”
