AmeriCorps placed employees at its Washington headquarters and around the nation on administrative leave Wednesday as the Trump administration and DOGE moved to make sweeping cuts at an organization that deploys volunteers across the U.S.
Employees received a memo from Interim Director Jennifer Bastress Tahmasebi informing them they had been placed on leave effective immediately, according to a copy of the memo obtained by POLITICO and agency staff with direct knowledge of the situation who were granted anonymity to avoid repercussions.
A spokesperson for AmeriCorps did not immediately respond to questions but staff members said hundreds of people appear to have been placed on leave, jeopardizing the organization’s programs with nonprofits around the country. Only a handful of senior officials and program heads remain active at the agency, one of the affected employees said.
“The work we perform for the American public is vital and we’ve now been stripped of our ability to do that,” said an AmeriCorps employee placed on leave. “I worry about the impact that this will have on grantees, members, and volunteers who have committed themselves to providing service for Americans.”
The action is the latest move by the Department of Government Efficiency, overseen by Elon Musk, to carry out cutbacks across departments and agencies. The billionaire Tesla CEO once pledged to cut $1 trillion from the federal budget but seems to have recently pared that down to $150 billion.
Nearly half of AmeriCorps’ 600-person workforce had already accepted the Trump administration’s deferred resignations and the agency earlier this week dismissed 1,500 young volunteers for the National Civilian Community Corps who provide disaster relief and other services around the country.
The broader cuts will be felt throughout the country with the loss of such programs as Senior Companions, which connects elderly volunteers with other people in their age group who need help and Foster Grandparents, which pairs retirees with children with special needs.
“When people think of AmeriCorps, we think of young volunteers, but it’s much larger than that,” said Pete McRoberts, a former corps member and AmeriCorps advisory board chair. “There are tens of thousands of retired senior volunteers.”
McRoberts said the effects will be felt across the country, especially in rural areas where the organization has long enjoyed bipartisan support.
“This is huge in rural Iowa where we don’t have a ton of nursing homes,” he said. “To have that dissolved in this way is such a loss.”
DOGE did not respond to a request for comment.
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