WASHINGTON – The Senate education committee Tuesday called for an increase in public service to help restore the country’s economy-battered spirits as its chairman, Sen. Edward Kennedy, offered a bill to create more federally funded public service programs like AmeriCorps.

Kennedy, D-Mass., and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, proposed the Serve America Act that aims to increase public service volunteerism by creating more programs like AmeriCorps and HealthCorps to address specific national needs. 

“At this time more than ever, service can not only serve as an agent of change, it can serve as a powerful tool for mental resilience,” Michelle Bouchard, president of HealthCorps, told the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing.

The bill’s goal is to get 175,000 more Americans to give a year of service in one of the newly created organizations, which would expand the number of national volunteers to more than 250,000.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., said the proposal would  capitalize on what she called the “Obama effect.”

“This last election unleashed an incredible energy among young people,” she said.  “People want to know how they can give, how they can help, how they can make a difference.”

Michael Brown, CEO of City Year, Inc., an organization that brings young people together for a year of service, said that today’s young adults are volunteering in record numbers.  He said his organization has seen a 180 percent spike in enrollment in the last year. 

“We need to tap into this tremendous civic energy and provide more opportunities for Americans to meet America’s challenges by focusing their service on solving major national problems,” he said.  “That is what the Serve America Act does.”

The Senate is expected to vote on the Serve America Act later this month.