Gov. Josh Shapiro is joining a coalition of 23 state AGs to sue the Trump administration for dismantling AmeriCorps

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, and 23 states’ attorneys general are suing President Donald Trump’s administration over its sweeping and systematic cuts to AmeriCorps, a federal community service program that oversees thousands of volunteers.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in a Maryland federal court, accuses the Trump administration of efforts to “dismantle” AmeriCorps, and contends that the president does not have the constitutional authority to do so because the agency was established by an act of Congress. New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings are also listed as plaintiffs, along with the attorneys general of New York, California, Michigan, Illinois, and Arizona, among others.

“The President cannot dismantle the agency or prevent it from administering appropriated grants or carrying out its statutorily assigned duties,” Platkin’s office said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.

A spokesperson for Shapiro could not be immediately reached for comment.

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AmeriCorps was created in 1993 during President Bill Clinton’s administration as a domestic version of the Peace Corps. People ages 18 to 26 spend 10 months working on full-time service projects in exchange for a modest living stipend and a higher education grant worth over $7,300. AmeriCorps volunteers provide natural disaster relief with the Red Cross, build homes with Habitat for Humanity, and teach in underserved schools, among other assignments.

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) began probing AmeriCorps in mid-April over alleged financial wastefulness, recalling 750 members of the agency’s National Civilian Community Corps from their posts on disaster preparedness and anti-poverty projects “effective immediately.” Soon afterward, DOGE placed 85% of AmeriCorps federal employees on administrative leave, with layoffs set to go into effect June 24.

And on Friday, DOGE ordered AmeriCorps to terminate $400 million in grants to more than 1,000 community service programs across the United States, including several in Pennsylvania.

These actions “flouts Congress’s creation of AmeriCorps,” the complaint said, and “leave the agency incapable of fulfilling its mission.”

AmeriCorps’ $1 billion operating costs make up less than 0.02% of the 2025 federal budget, though the agency has failed to provide usable financial statements to auditors for the last eight years, making it difficult to have a complete picture of its fiscal health. For every tax dollar invested, AmeriCorps returns $17.30 in value, according to a 2020 study from Voices of National Service.

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AmeriCorps’ gutting has received bipartisan criticism in Pennsylvania, where U.S. Reps. Chrissy Houlahan (D., Pa.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R., Pa.) are cosponsoring a bill that would prohibit federal dollars from being used to gut AmeriCorps.

“They’re coming in with the assumption that this is all waste, fraud, and abuse,” Houlahan, an AmeriCorps alum, previously told The Inquirer. “But we have so much to lose when we talk about taking these people, who have servant hearts, out of communities.”

The lawsuit claims that AmeriCorps’ demise could inflict “immediate and irreparable harms” if left unchecked. It provides examples of just how far the cuts could reach in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey.

Penn Serve — Pennsylvania’s designated state service commission for AmeriCorps — received nearly $18 million in federal grants for the period starting July 2024 to administer 28 programs. All but two of those programs had federal funding slashed, according to a spreadsheet of grant terminations obtained by the Inquirer. They include peer support for veterans experiencing mental illness and addiction in Butler, an early childhood literacy program in Pittsburgh, and teachers for more than 7,700 K-12 students in the Philadelphia area.

“It was like waiting for a pink slip,” said Hillary Kane, the executive director of the Philadelphia Higher Education Network for Neighborhood Development, which uses AmeriCorps funding for a mentorship program for first-generation low-income college students and to place fellows in West Philadelphia high schools to work on college readiness initiatives.

Kane lost an $805,642 grant to support both initiatives due to DOGE’s cuts. Already, she has had to lay off one full-time employee. The college mentorship program, Kane said, is now “likely dead in the water.”

Delaware received nearly $1.5 million in federal grants to support 1,322 AmeriCorps volunteers for the 2024 fiscal year, according to the complaint. It has since lost more than $1 million of that funding.

New Jersey had $6 million in federal AmeriCorps grants terminated during DOGE’s purge, according to the statement from the state’s office of the attorney general. These cuts have affected a food pantry and homeless shelter, as well as addiction recovery and disaster preparedness programs.

“Gutting AmeriCorps is illegal and reckless,” Platkin said in the statement. “We will fight this senseless move and look forward to seeing the Trump Administration in court.”