The following letter is shared as a template to assist you in contacting your congressperson about the CNCS Transformation & Sustainability Plan (i.e. the CNCS Reform). Please edit as you feel appropriate and be sure to share your personal story of how you feel this change will affect Connecticut communities.
If you are unsure who your representative is, please visit this page to search by zip code!
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Dear Senator/Congressmember:
I am contacting you today to request your action on a reorganization plan being implemented by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), the federal government agency that funds AmeriCorps and Senior Corps.
As part of its “Transformation and Sustainability Plan,” CNCS is moving forward with plans to close 43 state offices and open eight regional offices. This will severely impact the agency’s ability to develop local programs, support grantees in states without a regional office, and oversee government funds to ensure compliance with all federal rules and regulations.
This reorganization plan is occurring at great expense and disruption to current staff at a time when CNCS has failed to do the following:
- respond in full and in the Federal Register to 264 comments in the Federal Register about the reorganization plan;
- respond to a FOIA requests related to the reorganization plan;
- implement other changes recommended by the CNCS Office of Inspector General (OIG);
- implement recommendations outlined in a reports from the Government Accountability Office (GAO)
The action we are requesting that you take:
Contact Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, Senator Blunt, and Senator Shelby who chair the appropriations subcommittee that provides funding for CNCS (Appropriations Subcommittee for Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies).
Please ask Congresswoman DeLauro, Senators Blunt and Shelby to ensure that CNCS suspends implementation of its Transformation and Sustainability Plan until CNCS has addressed all of the concerns raised in the Federal Register comments, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report, and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. The primary concern is Goal #6, the fast-tracking of the Regionalization of State Offices without any known evaluation and assessment of its impact on programming in rural and frontier communities, staff turn-over and retention of institutional knowledge and community-based relationship, and the significant increase in staff time and travel budget.
CNCS should respond with data-backed information for each of the six goals of the reorganization plan. Congress can then determine the best path and timeline for implementation of any, all or none of the CNCS plan.
Sincerely,
[YOUR NAME]
[YOUR ADDRESS]
