Politics

President Obama Signs the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act

By Karina

This afternoon, President Obama signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act into law - launching a new era of service that will give Americans of all ages the opportunity to help our nation recover and make progress on education, health care, energy and other key goals by volunteering.

Speaker Pelosi on the bill signing:

The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act honors both the historic legislative accomplishments of Ted Kennedy and President Obama?s pledge to ?encourage a renewed spirit of national service for this and future generations.?

By creating 175,000 new service opportunities ? more than tripling the number of volunteers nationwide ? and rewarding those who volunteer in their communities with an investment in their education, we are strengthening our neighborhoods and educating a talented workforce to compete and win in the global economy. There is no better time to support and energize volunteerism to help our country get through this economic crisis, restore confidence and prepare our nation for the future.

Thanks to the bipartisan efforts of many here in Congress, and the commitment and leadership of President Obama, the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act will launch a new era of public service that will provide a stronger nation for all Americans.

As he signed the legislation, the President asked Americans to serve saying, “a week from tomorrow marks the 100th day of my administration. In those next eight days, I ask every American to make an enduring commitment to serving your community and your country in whatever way you can. Visit WhiteHouse.gov to share your stories of service and success. And together, we will measure our progress not just in number of hours served or volunteers mobilized ? but in the impact our efforts have on the life of this nation.” Visit whitehouse.gov/change and share how you are delivering change in your community>>

Learn more about the legislation>>

Full post as published by The Gavel on April 21, 2009 (boomark / email).