Attorney General Jeff Jackson Wins Back Funding for Western North Carolina Recovery

Tuesday, August 29, 2025
Email: nahmed@ncdoj.gov
Phone: 919-538-2809

RALEIGH – Today, Attorney General Jeff Jackson announced that AmeriCorps has agreed to release all of the funds that it had previously unlawfully withheld for jobs and grants supporting western North Carolina recovery. The federal government informed the court yesterday evening that it would deliver the funds.

“The federal government knew that it would lose against us in court because it had no right to cut funds for AmeriCorps that Congress had already authorized,” said Attorney General Jeff Jackson. “This money belongs to North Carolina and is crucial for western North Carolina’s recovery. I’m deeply grateful for the AmeriCorps members on the ground who can keep helping our communities rebuild after Helene.”

Programs in North Carolina that can now continue include:

Project MARS (Big Brothers Big Sisters of WNC): employs 45 people who served 18 western North Carolina counties after Hurricane Helene by delivering supplies and meals to homebound and stranded families, distributing food and clothing, assisting shelters and crisis hotlines, and supporting schools as they reopened.

Project Conserve: employs 25 people who partnered with local organizations in 25 western North Carolina counties after Hurricane Helene to perform debris removal, tree replanting, storm-system repairs and rain-barrel distribution.

Project POWER: employs 14 people who assisted more than 10,500 people affected by disasters in Buncombe, Henderson, and Madison counties by coordinating large-scale food donations, setting up distribution sites, conducting wellness checks and managing cleanup efforts.

Programs that provide literacy services, community gardens, support for future teachers in rural communities, mental health support for students, and food and grocery distribution.

On April 15, AmeriCorps ordered more than 50 full-time volunteers to stop working on Helene recovery in western North Carolina, as part of terminating more than 750 National Civilian Community Corps volunteers and more than $400 million for service programs nationwide. On April 29, Attorney General Jackson joined a coalition of 22 other attorneys general and two governors suing AmeriCorps for not administering grants that Congress had already appropriated. A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction in June that restored all programs that had been terminated in North Carolina while the case continued.

After the preliminary injunction, the Office of Management and Budget then began withholding $184 million in funding nationwide. These withheld funds, which Congress had also already appropriated. affected additional North Carolina programs. Attorney General Jackson filed a motion earlier this month to stop that unlawful withholding. In a filing yesterday evening, AmeriCorps and the Office of Management and Budget told the court that they will release all previously withheld funds and distribute them as quickly as possible.

Attorney General Jeff Jackson was joined by the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawai‛i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin, and the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania in filing the lawsuit.

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