National Service Key to National Recovery

PHOTO: U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich participates in a restoration service project with the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps' Hands-On Preservation Experience (HOPE) Crew  at Bandelier National Monument, July 1, 2015.

Dear Friend,

In times of national crisis, Americans have always embraced service to their country. Both during the immediate public health emergency we face and on the long road to recovery, we will be a much stronger country if we ask Americans to step up to serve our nation and give them meaningful opportunities to do so. 

I am proud to help lead a bipartisan coalition of members in the House and Senate who just introduced the Pandemic Response and Recovery Through National Service Act. Our legislation would greatly expand and improve AmeriCorps programs, funding 750,000 national service positions over a three-year response and recovery period. Empowering a new generation of Americans through service will be a key ingredient not just to meeting our immediate public health challenges, but also a strong long-term economic recovery.  

This is very personal for me. I am the first United States Senator who is an alum of the AmeriCorps program. I served as a natural resources AmeriCorps Member assigned to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's Mexican Wolf Recovery Project. My work helped lay the groundwork for the recovery of one of the world's most endangered species. Because I grew up on a farm, my skills were often applied to the program's infrastructure needs. I was asked to run a backhoe laying water lines for the breeding enclosures that brought these creatures back from the brink of extinction.

When our nation was struggling through the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt well understood the value of this kind of work when he created New Deal programs like the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps. He understood that a generation of out of work Americans were not without worth, but rather that they could leave an indelible mark on our country.

Over the years, I've had the privilege of meeting many of the Civilian Conservation Corps participants, or "CCC boys," as they called themselves. Many of them have passed away by now, but their works will outlive all of them and will continue to serve this nation for decades to come. You can see the legacy they left in New Mexico at Bandelier National Monument, at White Sands National Park, and on backcountry trails throughout our public lands. 

We need to expand national service opportunities to give a new generation of Americans the opportunity to leave their mark and play a major role in our national recovery. They can reinforce the workforce for urgent public health and emergency response and also go to work rebuilding communities and important infrastructure. For example, Indian Country has borne a disproportionate brunt from the pandemic. Funding more opportunities in the Indian Youth Service Corps will mean real help for tribal nations in their recovery from this tragic time.

In addition, putting today's national service corps to work conserving our public lands and creating resilient landscapes will have a long-term economic impact on our country. The outdoor recreation industry was fueling some of the fastest job growth in New Mexico, particularly in our rural and tribal communities, before the pandemic hit. Expanding our conservation corps will create jobs in the short-term and create new opportunities in our public lands that will help us restore and keep growing a key part of New Mexico's economy, and rural economies all across the country.

I'm so proud to be a part of this effort to empower a new generation of Americans to serve our great nation. I encourage you to keep informed about how to stay safe during the pandemic and please contact my office if I can be of assistance. You can count on me to keep doing everything in my power to secure resources New Mexico needs for a lifesaving public health response that's rooted in science and a broad economic recovery.

Be well and stay healthy.

Sincerely,

MARTIN HEINRICH

United States Senator