Title: 21st Century Civilian Conservation Corps Act
Policy area: Labor and Employment

Summary:
21st Century Civilian Conservation Corps Act
This bill authorizes the President, until the end of FY2022, to establish and operate a Civilian Conservation Corps to employ unemployed or underemployed U.S. citizens in the construction, maintenance, and carrying on of public works, such as forestation of U.S. and state lands, prevention of forest fires, floods, and soil erosion, and construction and repair of National Park System paths and trails.
If there are insufficient funds to employ all U.S. citizens in the corps, the President must give preference in the hiring process to (1) unemployed veterans, (2) workers who have exhausted their unemployment compensation, and (3) other unemployed workers eligible for unemployment compensation. The President may provide housing and transportation services for corps employees.
The bill prohibits discrimination in the employment of corps employees, but individuals convicted of a crime may not be employed in the corps.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2358 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2358

  To authorize the President to reestablish the Civilian Conservation 
  Corps as a means of providing gainful employment to unemployed and 
underemployed citizens of the United States through the performance of 
              useful public work, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 25, 2019

Ms. Kaptur (for herself, Ms. Lee of California, Mr. Pocan, Ms. Norton, 
Ms. Moore, Mr. Cardenas, Mr. Payne, and Ms. Schakowsky) introduced the 
 following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and 
                                 Labor

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To authorize the President to reestablish the Civilian Conservation 
  Corps as a means of providing gainful employment to unemployed and 
underemployed citizens of the United States through the performance of 
              useful public work, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``21st Century Civilian Conservation 
Corps Act''.

SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT AND OPERATION OF CIVILIAN CONSERVATION CORPS.

    (a) Establishment and Purpose.--In order to relieve the acute 
condition of widespread distress and unemployment existing in the 
United States and to provide for the restoration of depleted natural 
resources in the United States and the advancement of an orderly 
program of useful public works, the President may establish and operate 
a Civilian Conservation Corps to employ citizens of the United States, 
who are otherwise unemployed or underemployed, in the construction, 
maintenance, and carrying on of works of a public nature in connection 
with--
            (1) the forestation of lands belonging to the United States 
        or a State;
            (2) the prevention of forest fires, floods, and soil 
        erosion;
            (3) plant pest and disease control;
            (4) the construction, maintenance, or repair of paths, 
        trails, and fire-lanes in units of the National Park System, 
        public lands, and other lands under the jurisdiction of the 
        Secretary of the Interior and units of the National Forest 
        System; and
            (5) such other work on Federal or State land incidental to 
        or necessary in connection with any projects of the character 
        enumerated in paragraphs (1) through (4) that the President 
        determines to be desirable.
    (b) Role of Federal Agencies.--To operate the Civilian Conservation 
Corps, the President may utilize existing Federal departments and 
agencies, including the Department of Labor, the Department of Defense, 
the National Guard Bureau, the Department of the Interior, the 
Department of Agriculture, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Department 
of Transportation, the Department of Energy, the Environmental 
Protection Agency, and Federal governmental corporations.
    (c) Inclusion of Other Lands.--The President may extend the 
activities of the Civilian Conservation Corps to lands owned by a 
political subdivision of a State and lands in private ownership, but 
only for the purpose of conducting such kinds of cooperation work as 
are otherwise authorized by law in preventing and controlling forest 
fires and the attacks of forest tree pests and diseases and such work 
as is necessary and in the public interest to control floods.
    (d) Contract Authority.--For the purpose of carrying out this Act, 
the President may enter into such contracts or agreements with States 
as may be necessary, including provisions for utilization of existing 
State administrative agencies.
    (e) Acquisition of Real Property.--The President, or the head of 
any department or agency authorized by the President to construct any 
project or to carry on any public works under this Act, may acquire 
real property for such project or public work by purchase, donation, 
condemnation, or otherwise.

SEC. 3. ADMINISTRATION OF CIVILIAN CONSERVATION CORPS.

    (a) Employment Preference.--If the President determines that 
amounts appropriated to carry out a Civilian Conservation Corps under 
this Act for a fiscal year will be insufficient to employ all of the 
citizens of the United States described in section 2(a) who are seeking 
or likely to seek employment in the Civilian Conservation Corps and 
continue the employment of current employees who desire to remain in 
the Civilian Conservation Corps, the President shall employ additional 
persons in the Civilian Conservation Corps in the following order of 
preference:
            (1) Unemployed veterans of the Armed Forces and unemployed 
        members of the reserve components of the Armed Forces.
            (2) Unemployed citizens who have exhausted their 
        entitlement to unemployment compensation.
            (3) Unemployed citizens, who immediately before employment 
        in the Civilian Conservation Corps, are eligible for 
        unemployment compensation payable under any State law or 
        Federal unemployment compensation law, including any additional 
        compensation or extended compensation under such laws.
            (4) Other citizens described in section 2(a).
    (b) Housing and Care of Employees.--The President may provide 
housing for persons employed in the Civilian Conservation Corps and 
furnish them with such subsistence, clothing, medical attendance and 
hospitalization, and cash allowance, as may be necessary, during the 
period they are so employed.
    (c) Transportation.--The President may provide for the 
transportation of persons employed in the Civilian Conservation Corps 
to and from the places of employment.
    (d) Non-Discrimination.--In employing citizens for the Civilian 
Conservation Corps, no discrimination shall occur in accordance with 
Federal employment law; except that no individual under conviction for 
crime and serving sentence therefore shall be employed under the 
provisions of this Act.

SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    (a) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated to the President $16,000,000,000 for each of fiscal years 
2019 through 2022 to establish and operate a Civilian Conservation 
Corps under this Act.
    (b) Use of Unobligated Funds Appropriated for Public Works.--
            (1) Use of existing funds.--The President may use any 
        moneys previously appropriated for public works and unobligated 
        as of the date of the enactment of this Act to establish and 
        operate a Civilian Conservation Corps under this Act.
            (2) Use to relieve unemployment.--Not less than 80 percent 
        of the funds utilized pursuant to paragraph (1) must be used to 
        provide for the employment of individuals under this Act.
            (3) Exceptions.--Paragraph (1) does not apply to--
                    (A) unobligated moneys appropriated for public 
                works on which actual construction has been commenced 
                as of the date of the enactment of this Act or may be 
                commenced within 90 days after that date; and
                    (B) maintenance funds for river and harbor 
                improvements already allocated as of the date of the 
                enactment of this Act.
    (c) Duration of Availability.--Amounts appropriated pursuant to the 
authorization of appropriations in subsection (a) or made available 
under subsection (b) shall remain available until expended.

SEC. 5. TERMINATION.

    The authority of the President to establish and operate a Civilian 
Conservation Corps under this Act expires on September 30, 2022.
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