Attorney General Bonta Volunteers with AmeriCorps Members in Sacramento, Highlights Programs Protected through Litigation Against the Trump Administration

SACRAMENTO — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today joined Improve Your Tomorrow, a program that helps young men of color get to — and through — college, to highlight the important work that AmeriCorps servicemembers do in California communities. AmeriCorps supports national and state community service programs by funding and placing volunteers in local and national organizations that address critical community needs. In 2024, more than 6,000 California AmeriCorps members served over 1,200 locations, including schools, food banks, homeless shelters, health clinics, youth centers, veterans’ facilities, and other nonprofit and faith-based organizations.

Earlier this year, the Trump Administration attempted to dismantle this longstanding service-based agency and cut critical funding. As part of the Attorney General’s work to hold this Administration accountable when it breaks the law and harms Californians, Attorney General Bonta filed a lawsuit and secured relief — ensuring AmeriCorps servicemembers could continue to support their communities this holiday season and all year.

“This holiday season, I’m grateful for the thousands of AmeriCorps members serving in communities across our state,” said Attorney General Rob Bonta. “These AmeriCorps members represent the best of our country — embodying a spirit of giving that is especially poignant this time of year. I’m proud of the work my office did to defend AmeriCorps and ensure critical programs like Improve Your Tomorrow continue to get the support they need to raise up the next generation of leaders. In California, we’re not looking for a fight — but we won’t hesitate to defend our people, our programs, and our values when they’re under threat.”

"AmeriCorps has been a lifeline for organizations like Improve Your Tomorrow and for the students we serve every day,” said Improve Your Tomorrow CEO and Co-Founder Michael Lynch.“When DOGE tried to gut this program, it wasn’t just a budget decision - it was an attack on opportunities for low-income communities and young people across California. We’re grateful that Attorney General Bonta stood up, went to court, and won. This victory means our IYT AmeriCorps members can stay focused on what they do best: helping students get to and through college, instead of wondering if their service will be cut out from under them."

“Today is a reminder that when California leads with service, we don’t just build stronger communities, we fight to protect them. We are standing firm to defend AmeriCorps in California and together we’re demonstrating the power of service to strengthen our communities," said California Chief Service Officer and GO-Serve Director Josh Fryday. "I’m grateful to Attorney General Rob Bonta and partners like Improve Your Tomorrow who understand the real power of service lies in its ability to connect people, solve problems and keep communities moving forward."

PROTECTING AMERICORPS: MEANINGFUL IMPACTS TO CA COMMUNITIES

AmeriCorps is an independent federal agency tasked with engaging Americans in meaningful community-based service that directly addresses the country’s educational, public safety, and environmental needs. Organizations rely on support from AmeriCorps to recruit, place, and supervise AmeriCorps members nationwide. In 2024, AmeriCorps invested more than $133 million in federal funding to California to support cost-effective community solutions, working with local partners like Improve Your Tomorrow to help communities tackle their toughest challenges.

In April 2025, Attorney General Bonta co-led a multistate coalition of Attorneys General in suing and securing an early court order blocking the Trump Administration from unlawfully cutting AmeriCorps funding and dismantling the agency. Attorney General Bonta and his multistate partners then expanded the lawsuit to challenge the withholding of an additional $184 million in funding, which the Trump Administration ultimately agreed to release rather than continue to defend its illegal actions in court.

LITIGATION YIELDING RESULTS: SECURING RELIEF FOR CALIFORNIANS

Attorney General Bonta has taken the Trump Administration to court 48 times in 45 weeks to protect California from the harms of this Administration's illegal actions. These lawsuits involve protecting constitutional rights, upholding the rule of law, stopping the dismantling of the federal government, preserving programs, services and funding that Californians rely on, and more. This litigation has been broadly successful, delivering real results for California communities through both early relief and permanent injunctions and stipulated agreements that fully resolve the cases in California’s favor. Examples include:

• Defending Constitutional Rights: Attorney General Bonta has vigorously defended the constitutional rights of California in courts, securing multiple court orders protecting birthright citizenship and blocking the Trump Administration’s unlawful attempt to restrict the right to vote.
• Supporting Public Safety and Victims of Crime:Attorney General Bonta has secured commitments from U.S. DOJ, following two multistate lawsuits, to drop illegal conditions on grant funding for organizations that support victims of crime. These funds go toward critical wraparound services for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, human trafficking, and elder abuse.
• Protecting California’s Schools: Attorney General Bonta secured full and permanent relief for California schools in his lawsuit challenging the Trump Administration’s withholding of over $900 million in funding at the start of the school year. He also protected another $200 million in previously obligated and awarded funding for the academic recovery of students following the COVID-19 pandemic. 
• Blocking the Illegal Conditioning of Transportation and Homeland Security Funding: Attorney General Bonta secured permanent injunctions blocking the Trump Administration’s effort to unlawfully impose immigration enforcement requirements on billions of dollars in annual transportation and homeland security grants. These grants help California maintain our roads, highways, railways, airways, and bridges and prepare for, protect against, respond to, and recover from terrorist attacks and other catastrophes.
• Protecting Californians’ Data: Attorney General Bonta has secured court orders preventing the Trump Administration from allowing ICE to comb through the private data of Medicaid recipients or from bullying states into turning over the data of SNAP recipients to aid in its efforts to build a mass surveillance machine.

You can find more on the California Department of Justice’s work to hold the federal government accountable here: https://oag.ca.gov/federal-accountability.