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HR 9766
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Building Community in America Act

To amend the National and Community Service Act of 1990 to expand participation by underrepresented populations in service programs, and for other purposes.

Introduced Jul 16, 2026

Latest action (Jul 16, 2026) Referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce.

Referred to
Education and Workforce Committee
Policy area
Labor and Employment

Summary
  • Amends the National and Community Service Act of 1990 to add expanding participation among underrepresented populations in national and community service, particularly young adults in mentoring, coaching, youth development, and community-building activities, as a national purpose.
  • Requires national service priorities to include programs that prioritize recruitment and training of underrepresented participants, including men, for youth coaching, mentoring, school support, conservation, disaster response, public safety, and workforce development activities.
  • Amends the national service program provisions to prioritize project selection for programs that recruit and train underrepresented participants for the specified activities.
  • Amends the Domestic Volunteer Service Act of 1973 to prioritize assignment of volunteers to programs that focus on recruiting and training underrepresented participants, including men, for youth coaching, mentoring, school support, conservation, disaster response, public safety, and workforce development.

AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.

Sponsor (1)

Actions (2)
  1. Jul 16, 2026 Referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce. · house
  2. Jul 16, 2026 Introduced in House

Similar bills (6)

Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.

  • S 5031 — Building Community in America Act · Introduced Jul 16, 2026 · Cong. 119 91%
  • HR 7910 — ACTION for National Service Act · Introduced Mar 12, 2026 · Cong. 119 66%
  • HR 8210 — A Stronger Workforce for America Act of 2026 · Introduced Apr 21, 2026 · Cong. 119 64%
  • HR 7343 — Foster Youth Workforce Opportunity Act · Introduced May 11, 2026 · Cong. 119 64%
  • S 4068 — ACTION for National Service Act · Introduced Mar 12, 2026 · Cong. 119 62%
  • HR 5442 — Inspired to Serve Act of 2025 · Introduced Dec 19, 2025 · Cong. 119 62%

Text versions (1)
  • Introduced in House · Jul 16, 2026

Only one text version is on file, so there’s no earlier version to compare against yet.

Full text

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

July 16, 2026

Mr. Smith of Washington introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and Workforce

A BILL

To amend the National and Community Service Act of 1990 to expand participation by underrepresented populations in service programs, 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 “Building Community in America Act”.

SEC. 2. EXPANSIONS OF PARTICIPATION IN SERVICE PROGRAMS.

(a) Purpose.—Section 2(b) of the National and Community Service Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12501(b)) is amended—

(1) in paragraph (18), by striking “; and” and inserting a semicolon;

(2) in paragraph (19), by striking the period at the end and inserting “; and”; and

(3) by adding at the end the following:

“(20) expand participation in national and community service among populations underrepresented in service programs, including young adults underrepresented in mentoring, coaching, youth development, and other community-building activities.”.

(b) Priority.—

(1) National and community service act of 1990.—The National and Community Service Act of 1990 is amended—

(A) in section 122(f) (42 U.S.C. 12572(f)), by adding at the end the following:

“(5) Required priority.—The national service priorities under paragraph (1) shall include a priority for programs that prioritize the recruitment and training of underrepresented participants, including men, for activities including—

“(A) youth coaching or mentoring activities;

“(B) school attendance or after-school support activities;

“(C) activities in a national service position as part of a conservation corps;

“(D) disaster response activities;

“(E) public safety, violence interruption, or reentry support activities; or

“(F) skilled-trades, apprenticeships, or workforce-linked services.”; and

(B) in section 157 (42 U.S.C. 12617), by adding at the end the following:

“(d) Priority.—In developing project proposals under subsection

(b)(1) and selecting projects to be performed under subsection (c)(1), there shall be a priority for projects that prioritize the recruitment and training of underrepresented participants, including men, for any of the activities described in section 122(f)(5).”.

(2) Domestic volunteer service act of 1973.—Section 103 of the Domestic Volunteer Service Act of 1973 (42 U.S.C. 4953) is amended by adding at the end the following:

“(j) In the assignment of volunteers under this section, the Director shall give priority to projects or programs that prioritize the recruitment and training of underrepresented participants, including men, for any of the activities described in section 122(f)(5) of the National and Community Service Act of 1990.”. <all>

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