Attorney General Dan Rayfield has stopped the Trump administration from tearing apart AmeriCorps again without warning. AG Rayfield secured a settlement that protects critical AmeriCorps programming and volunteers; the resolution of this case follows a previous action that forced the administration to restore nearly $400 million in canceled AmeriCorps funding and release another $184 million that had been held back from programs in Oregon and across the country.

“AmeriCorps volunteers show up for Oregon communities every day, strengthening our schools, our nonprofits, and our neighborhoods,” said Attorney General Rayfield. “We already stopped the Trump administration from dismantling this program once. This settlement protects AmeriCorps for another year.”

AmeriCorps pays for and places volunteers with local organizations that do work like tutoring students, cleaning up after disasters, and supporting low-income families. Those organizations depend on AmeriCorps to recruit and manage the volunteers who do that work.

Under the settlement, AmeriCorps has agreed that this year it won’t cancel grants all at once like it did last spring, lay off represented employees beyond cuts already planned, or dismiss volunteers en masse. The federal administration will have to warn the states 30 days ahead of time if it proposes major changes to the program and explain its legal justification.

AmeriCorps also agreed to spend nearly all of this year’s funding by September 30, and to run two of its programs — the National Civilian Community Corps and AmeriCorps VISTA — according to federal law. The administration can’t change the terms for people currently serving in those programs except in specific situations spelled out in the settlement.

The states sued in April 2025, after the Trump administration tried to cut nearly 90 percent of AmeriCorps’ staff, cancel its contracts, and shut down $400 million worth of programs. A federal court ordered the administration to restore the programs it had illegally canceled. In August 2025, the administration agreed to release more than $184 million in funding.