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Again in Could, the federal company AmeriCorps was hit laborious when the Trump administration positioned 85% of its workers on administrative depart, terminated practically $400 million in federal contracts for the Nationwide Civilian Neighborhood Corps and reneged on over $550 million of congressionally permitted funding for 2025.
Actions on the federal stage don’t at all times have fast native influence, however on this case, organizations throughout Wisconsin have been in shock as funding that they’d been relying on instantly disappeared. We invited individuals who have been affected to get in contact with Wisconsin Watch video journalist Trisha Younger. Inside a day, she had a number of interviews lined up.
Simply as we have been on the brink of publish a video with these interviews, a federal decide dominated that funding commitments for this 12 months needed to be honored for states – together with Wisconsin – that had collectively sued the federal authorities over the AmeriCorps cuts.
Trisha rapidly bought in contact with the individuals she’d interviewed, lots of whom have been nonetheless processing the information. We determined that this roller-coaster expertise was a vital a part of the story — or in some methods, the primary story — and we reshot the interviews.
We discovered quite a bit from reporting this story, and we hope that viewers will take into account a number of questions as they watch the video: How a lot do you know about AmeriCorps and the applications it funds in Wisconsin? If you happen to assume these applications are doing helpful work, then how ought to they be funded?
You possibly can say share your ideas by emailing Cecilia at cdobbs@wisconsinwatch.org or Trisha at tyoung@wisconsinwatch.org.

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