Attorney General Nick Brown and a coalition of two dozen states have reached a settlement that stops the Trump administration's most recent attempt to dismantle AmeriCorps, a widely popular program that funds and places volunteers in urban and rural communities to address critical service needs.

The deal resolves the states' lawsuit against the administration's repeated attempts to gut the nation's volunteer service programs. Previously, as a result of the lawsuit, the Trump administration was forced to reinstate nearly $400 million in terminated AmeriCorps programs and agreed to release over $184 million in funds to service programs across the country. The attempted cuts had threatened the survival of those programs - including more than $21 million in funds for AmeriCorps programs in Washington. This settlement protects the funding and participants of those programs for Fiscal Year 2026 as well.

"AmeriCorps has long enjoyed bipartisan support because of its focus on service and opportunity for American communities of all sizes while giving its members experience that set their careers in motion," Brown said. "It's hard to understand why any federal administration would launch an illegal attack on successful programs that strengthen communities, empower individuals to serve, and bolster national pride."

AmeriCorps supports national and state community service programs by funding and placing volunteers in local and national organizations that address critical community needs. Organizations rely on support from AmeriCorps to recruit, place, and supervise AmeriCorps members nationwide.

In Washington, AmeriCorps members and volunteers provide invaluable services to our state's most vulnerable populations by, among many other things, working at food banks, tutoring children, rehabilitating low-income housing, mentoring at-risk youth, and providing services to home-bound seniors and at-risk veterans. These members and volunteers have a long-lasting impact on communities throughout Washington, including their efforts to build climate resilience, minimize the impact of natural disasters, and respond when disaster does strike.

The coalition initiated the litigation in April 2025, after the Trump administration moved to eliminate nearly 90% of AmeriCorps' workforce, cancel its contracts, and close $400 million worth of AmeriCorps-supported programs. In June 2025, a federal court granted the coalition's motion for a preliminary injunction requiring the administration to reinstate programs that had been unlawfully canceled. Then in August 2025, following a further motion for preliminary injunction by the coalition, the federal Office of Management and Budget agreed to release more than $184 million in AmeriCorps funding it had withheld.

Under the terms of the settlement, AmeriCorps states that it does not anticipate that, during Fiscal Year 2026, it will terminate grants en masse as it did in Spring 2025, conduct reductions in force of union employees beyond certain previously planned cuts, or dismiss AmeriCorps service members en masse. Should AmeriCorps take any of those actions or make a material change to its delivery of volunteer services, it must provide the coalition states with written notice at least 30 days in advance and identify the legal authority under which it is taking the action.

AmeriCorps has also agreed to substantially commit all of its Fiscal Year 2026 funding by September 30, 2026, and to administer its National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) and AmeriCorps VISTA programs in accordance with the federal statutes that govern them. Under the settlement, AmeriCorps may not disrupt the current terms of service of NCCC or VISTA participants, except under specific, lawful circumstances detailed in the settlement.

The settlement pauses the litigation through February 1, 2027, at which point the coalition will voluntarily dismiss the case without prejudice if AmeriCorps has complied with its commitments. Should the coalition determine that AmeriCorps has not complied, it may move the court to lift the stay and resume litigation. The coalition also retains the right to challenge other unlawful conduct by AmeriCorps, whether through an amended complaint during the stay or a new action during or after the stay.

Joining the Washington Attorney General's Office in the settlement, co-led by the attorneys general of Maryland, California, Colorado, and Delaware, are the attorneys general of Arizona, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Hawaiʻi, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin, and the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania.

Read the filed settlement here.

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