National service gets booster shot from U.S. senate.

Sensing a growing commitment to public service in a time of crisis, two United States senators are championing a bill that would dramatically expand volunteer avenues for everyone from high school graduates to senior citizens.

The Call to Service Act of 2001, sponsored by Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), would among other things quintuple the ranks of AmeriCorps, eliminate taxes on AmeriCorps education grants, loosen the eligibility for seniors to volunteer through Senior Corps, and require colleges and universities use federal work-study money to trumpet with more urgency student involvement in community service.

"There will be significant homeland defense needs from here forwards, some of which can be built by people in volunteer capacities," Bayh spokesman Mark Kornblau told The NonProfit Times. "There is a willingness on the part of the American people to serve and to give back. (The senators) feel this is a unique moment, and they are hoping to harness that spirit and turn it into a productive use."

He added: "They are hoping to make public service a rite of passage for young Americans."

Kornblau said Bayh has long been a strong advocate for national service, and that he had started working on the bill before the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Approximately 1.5 million people a year are served by AmeriCorps, Learn and Serve America and the National Senior Service Corps, all of which were started by former President Bill Clinton in 1993 when he launched the Corporation for National and Community Service. Many of the initial concepts were developed during the administration of President George H.W. Bush.

Currently, AmeriCorps -- which is viewed as the domestic answer to the Peace Corps -- supports about 50,000 volunteers annually. The bill would boost that number to 250,000 by 2010. It would also link the Corporation for National and Community Service to the new Office of Homeland Defense, charging the corporation to find ways to promote national security through all of its programs.

The bill will also lift the cap on the amount the corporation can award to national non-profits.

Official endorsements of heightened federal commitment to national service extend beyond the U.S. Senate, where the bill is likely to be uncontroversial. United States House of Representatives Reps. Harold Ford (D-Tenn.) and Tom Osborne (R-Neb.) are sponsoring a companion to the Call to Service Act in the House. And, President George W. Bush in a Nov. 8 address to the nation pledged that the federal government "will encourage service to country by creating new opportunities within the AmeriCorps and Senior Corps programs for public safety and public health efforts."