AmeriCorps is not an effective jobs or education program. We submit that it will not increase voluntarism in our country.

Mr. President, students of history will recall that one of the most profound observers of the American scene, as this country was getting going in the early 1800's, was a French historian by the name of Alexis de Tocqueville . Alexis de Tocqueville came to this country to see what made it so dynamic, why we were seeming to do so well just 50 years after our Revolution, and what experience he could take back to France to tell his fellow citizens how they might improve their society as Americans seemed to be doing.

One of his chief findings was that Americans banded together in all sorts of voluntary arrangements to help each other in their local communities. They banded together in groups with names and just as neighbors helping neighbors--to put up a barn, to help a family, to work in a community, to work in the churches or the synagogues.

In one way or another, he observed, Americans volunteered to help each other, and that was one of the significant differences between America and the old Europe from which he came. In fact, he reflected on this by saying, `America is great because America is good.' And if America shall ever cease to be good, America will cease to be great. One of those elements of goodness to which he was referring was this dynamic concept of voluntarism that characterized the American society.

That voluntarism has continued until this day. But I submit that the AmeriCorps Program--U.S. Government paid volunteers--undermines the concept of voluntarism, as Alexis de Tocqueville had observed. Groups such as the Salvation Army, Arizona Clean and Beautiful Project, the Crime Victim Foundation, St. Mary's and Andre House food bank, and others all around this country, commit millions of hours to voluntarism every year. Today, Americans, age 18 and up, volunteer, without pay, almost 20 billion hours of their time. That is a 50-percent increase in hours since 1981. Turning voluntarism into a wide-scale public job program, I submit, will undermine public and private philanthropy. It stands the concept of voluntarism on its head.

A final point, Mr. President. It is not just that it undermines voluntarism, and that it is costly. But it is taking money away from other programs which really could be of assistance to America's youth.

The AmeriCorps project is not based on need, as you know. It does not promote voluntarism based upon the need of the people who participate in it. Students are paid $7,400 for work and given $4,750 toward education costs for 2 years. In addition, recipients are guaranteed health and child care benefits, and in some localities, other benefits. For the average $20,000 to $30,000 cost per year, per student in the AmeriCorps Program, eight needy students could receive Pell grants at $2,400 apiece. So we could educate eight needy students in this country for the same thing that it costs us to pay for one `volunteer' under the AmeriCorps Program.

This $20,000 stipend is worth more than the individual income of nearly 40 million working Americans.

So, Mr. President, it seems to us that given the fact that it does not promote real voluntarism; that it is costing a tremendous amount of money; that the House voted overwhelmingly to reduce the funding to the level that we are proposing here; that it takes money away from programs which could really assist needy students who need funding to continue their education, we should adopt the amendment of the majority leader, thus reducing the amount of funding for the AmeriCorps Program.

I am going to yield to my colleague from Pennsylvania in a moment. I have one final point here. Over 2,800 volunteers--20 percent of the 20,000 AmeriCorps volunteers--are assigned to Federal agencies. This is a volunteer program designed to help people in local communities, but 20 percent of these people are assigned to the Department of Agriculture, Department of the Interior, National Endowment for the Arts, and others. The federally funded Legal Services Corporation for example has been awarded funding for 44 AmeriCorps volunteers, costing taxpayers almost a million dollars.

This is not voluntarism, Mr. President.