AMERICORPS Several governors, including Ed Rendell, seek more funding

GOP House members who control the money are reluctant to give up the cash.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell is leading a push by 43 governors to double AmeriCorps funding to $200 million this year to avoid cuts in the troubled volunteer service program.
"We hope you will do everything possible to ensure that these programs are not closed or drastically cut, that needed services continue to be provided by AmeriCorps members, and that we can continue to tap the idealism and patriotism of so many of our citizens who want to serve," wrote Rendell, a Democrat, and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, in a letter dated Monday to President Bush.
Americorps, which pays volunteers in stipends and college grants for up to a year, is the brainchild of former Pennsylvania Sen. Harris Wofford.
At issue is a Senate-approved plan to give Americorps an additional $100 million this year to fill its 50,000 volunteer positions. That would bring the program's total spending level to $200 million. Without the money, supporters say, as many as 20,000 volunteer jobs would go unfilled.
GOP lawmakers stall
But Republican House appropriators, pointing to Americorps' cash flow troubles, are reluctant to deliver the money. Last year, Americorps signed up 20,000 more volunteers than it could afford, leading to congressional charges of mismanagement and inefficiency.
The volunteer program already has gotten $275 million for the current federal budget year, which ends Oct. 1. In his 2004 budget request, President Bush proposed increasing the number of Americorps volunteers from 50,000 to 75,000.
"It is truly a shame that mismanagement might prevent willing individuals from serving their communities through AmeriCorps," Rendell and Romney wrote in the letter, which was signed by 41 other state executives, including presidential brother Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida.
"Without an emergency appropriation, the dramatic decrease in AmeriCorps positions now being proposed could seriously affect communities and individuals who rely on AmeriCorps members for help," they wrote.
The letter was not signed by the governors of Alabama, Colorado, Hawaii, New Hampshire, South Carolina, South Dakota and Texas.