House, Senate, administration battle over volunteer program

McClatchy reports:

One of the most popular volunteer programs in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the National Civilian Community Corps, is facing a budget crunch.

The corps, which is under the AmeriCorps umbrella, is a 10-month program for 18- to 24-year-olds to do short-term projects for six to eight weeks in areas of need. The approximately 1,200 volunteers a year receive small stipends, making the program a target for fiscal conservatives, who think it isn't government's role to pay for charity.

The House of Representatives has passed an appropriation for fiscal 2008 that would cut funding for the corps from $26 million this year to President Bush's proposed $11 million. But the program has a booster on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran, the panel's powerful ranking Republican.

"It's a volunteer program that has meant so much to the people of Mississippi," Cochran said in an interview.

You thought the Republicans were for smaller government:guess again.