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Jared Polis on Welfare & Poverty

Voted YES on instituting National Service as a new social invention.

Adds to National and Community Service Act of 1990 (NCSA) purposes:
1. providing year-round opportunities in service-learning;
2. involving program participants in emergency and disaster preparedness, relief, and recovery;
3. increasing service opportunities for retiring professionals;
4. encouraging service by individuals age 55 or older and continued service by national service alumni;
5. focusing national service on the areas of national need.

Proponent's argument to vote Yes:Sen. BARBARA MIKULSKI (D, MD): [In developing national service over many years] we were not in the business of creating another new social program. What we were in the business of was creating a new social invention. What do I mean by that? In our country, we are known for our technological inventions. But also often overlooked, and sometimes undervalued, is our social inventions.

We created national service to let young people find opportunity to be of service and also to make an important contribution. But not all was rosy. In 2003, when I was the ranking member on the appropriations subcommittee funding national service, they created a debacle. One of their most colossal errors was that they enrolled over 20,000 volunteers and could not afford to pay for it. That is how sloppy they were in their accounting. I called them the "Enron of nonprofits."

And they worked on it. But all that is history. We are going to expand AmeriCorps activity into specialized corps. One, an education corps; another, a health futures corps; another, a veterans corps; and another called opportunity corps. These are not outside of AmeriCorps. They will be subsets because we find this is where compelling human need is and at the same time offers great opportunity for volunteers to do it.

Opponent's argument to vote No:No senators spoke against the amendment.

Grants for faith-based groups to teach English.

Congressional Summary: Strengthen and Unite Communities with Civics Education and English Development Act of 2011: Allows state leadership activities grants to be used to provide technical assistance to faith and community-based organizations desiring grants under the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act:

• to disseminate information regarding integrated English literacy, US history, and civics education programs;
• to study the effectiveness of distance learning or self-study programs for English language learners;
• awards grants to states for integrated English literacy, US history, and civics education programs, with each state's grant amount tied to the size and growth of their recent immigrant population.

Sponsor's Press Release (Rep. Mike Honda):The SUCCEED Act helps new Americans integrate into the social and economic fabric of this country, through English language education and civics instruction. The SUCCEED Act makes grants available to states to establish New American Councils that bring together business, faith, civic, philanthropic, non-profit and education stakeholders to create and implement immigrant integration programs.