Carol Shea-Porter: “as a former social worker and administrator and a cosponsor of the GIVE Act, I rise today to express my strong support…”

“as a former social worker and administrator and a cosponsor of the GIVE Act, I rise today to express my strong support for H.R. 2857. I was able to see firsthand the hard work and self-sacrifice and dedication of our AmeriCorps volunteers during the Katrina recovery effort. As a relief volunteer myself, I worked side by side with the AmeriCorps volunteers. You can't say enough about these young people who gave of themselves and worked tirelessly for many, many hours to give comfort to their fellow Americans. This convinced me how essential AmeriCorps and other national service programs really are to this Nation. My experiences as a social worker and as an administrator and relief volunteer have made the reauthorization of this program a high priority for me, and I'm proud that it's a high priority for this Congress as well. I'm also grateful that the committee passed my amendment to increase the minimum amount of the State formula grants. This increase acknowledges that these volunteer programs are equally important in smaller States such as New Hampshire. These programs and the participants who are in them work miracles for very low money, and we need to thank them.”