Haley Stevens: “I regret deeply the necessity to move to table the motion of the Senator from Alabama. There has been a serious mistake…”

“I regret deeply the necessity to move to table the motion of the Senator from Alabama. There has been a serious mistake in this program, and these young people were notified they would be enrolled in August and September. The statements made on both sides are absolutely correct. Both sides have a point; that is, this should not have happened. But it did happen, and we felt compelled to keep the commitment to those people who were told they would be enrolled and to put up the money so they will be enrolled for the school year that starts in September. I do hope the Senate understands we will do everything possible to prevent this from happening again. I commend the Senator from Maryland and the Senator from Missouri for their diligence in finding out what happened and for bringing this to our attention, but there is no other way than to keep the commitment we have made and to see to it that AmeriCorps does continue to enroll these people. The enrollment for next year, as I understand it, will be at the authorized level of 50,000.”