Proclamation 6662—Transfer of Functions of the ACTION Agency to the Corporation for National and Community Service

On September 21, 1993, I had the honor of signing into law the National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993, which created the Corporation for National and Community Service. The Corporation was designed to involve Americans of all ages and backgrounds in community projects to address many of our Nation's most important needs—from educating our children to ensuring public safety to protecting our environment. It was chartered to foster civic responsibility, strengthening the ties that bind us together as a people, while providing educational opportunity for those who make the commitment to serve.

In the few short months since the Corporation's establishment, enormous progress has been made toward the achievement of these invaluable goals. Final regulations have been published governing the Corporation's new grant programs, grant application packages have been developed, and a national recruitment effort has begun. As a result of intensive outreach efforts, most states have already established State Commissions on National and Community Service, and many local programs, national nonprofit organizations, institutions of higher education, and Federal agencies are eager to participate. Grant competitions have begun for a summer program that will focus on our Nation's public safety concerns, and all community service grant competitions will be completed by this summer. Finally, the Corporation has established the National Civilian Community Corps, which will take advantage of closed and down-sized military bases to launch environmental clean-up and preservation efforts.

The ACTION Agency, provided for by the Domestic Volunteer Service Act of 1973, has worked closely with the Corporation, sharing its many years of experience in engaging Americans in service to their communities. Because the Corporation's initiatives and those programs operated by the ACTION Agency involve similar goals, the National and Community Service Trust Act calls for the merger of ACTION with the Corporation no later than March 22, 1995. To build upon the tremendous accomplishments already achieved by the Corporation, and to facilitate the further development of community service programs across the country, I am pleased to order that the functions of the Director of the ACTION Agency be transferred to the Corporation for National and Community Service.

Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United States of America, acting under the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including but not limited to sections 203(c)(2) and (d)(1)(B) of the National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993, proclaim that all functions of the Director of the ACTION Agency are hereby transferred to the Corporation for National and Community Service, effective April 4, 1994.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this fourth day of April, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and eighteenth.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON