U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., Vice Chair of the National Service Congressional Caucus and the first AmeriCorps alum to serve in the U.S. Senate, welcomed President Joe Biden’s launch of the American Climate Corps, which will put more than 20,000 young people on skilled trades career pathways in the growing fields of clean energy and climate resilience.

“As the first AmeriCorps alum in the Senate, I have been calling to create a Climate Corps for years,” Heinrich said. “There is a lot of work to do to solve climate change and build our clean energy future—young Americans are eager to be the heroes in this story. We need to invest in providing them the training and opportunities they need to pursue emerging career fields at the center of building climate solutions.”

In January 2021, Heinrich welcomed Biden’s Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, which called for the creation of a Civilian Climate Corps Initiative, within existing appropriations, to mobilize the next generation of conservation and resilience workers and maximize the creation of accessible training opportunities and good jobs.

The executive order mirrored legislation that Heinrich introduced alongside U.S. Senator Chris Coons, D-Del.,  to significantly expand national service programs, supports the construction, manufacturing, engineering, and skilled-trades jobs needed to build back better—bringing opportunity to low-income rural and urban areas alike—and initiates a Civilian Climate Corps to mobilize the next generation of conservation and resilience workers.

On Sept. 19 Heinrich co-led a letter alongside U.S. Senators Ed Markey, D-Mass., Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore.,, U.S. Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.,, Joe Neguse, D-Colo., and Judy Chu, D-Calif., and 44 other lawmakers to the Biden Administration in support of executive action to establish a federally coordinated Civilian Climate Corps initiative.

"Climate change is one of the greatest challenges we will ever face. But solving it will also be one of the greatest career and wealth creation opportunities in our lifetimes. Through the American Climate Corps—much like the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s—a whole new generation of Americans can step up to restore our lands and waters, install and maintain clean energy infrastructure, and build healthier and more resilient communities," Heinrich said.