Nonprofit Organizations and Counterterrorism Measures

Feb 8, 2016

Top 400 Taxpayers See Tax Rates Rise, But There’s More to the Story

As Americans were gathering party supplies to greet the New Year, the Internal Revenue Service released their annual report of cumulative tax data reported on the 400 tax r...

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Feb 4, 2016

Chlorine Bleach Plants Needlessly Endanger 63 Million Americans

Chlorine bleach plants across the U.S. put millions of Americans in danger of a chlorine gas release, a substance so toxic it has been used as a chemical weapon. Greenpeace’s new repo...

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Jan 25, 2016

U.S. Industrial Facilities Reported Fewer Toxic Releases in 2014

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data for 2014 is now available. The good news: total toxic releases by reporting facilities decreased by nearly six percent from 2013 levels. Howe...

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Jan 22, 2016

Methane Causes Climate Change. Here's How the President Plans to Cut Emissions by 40-45 Percent.

UPDATE (Jan. 22, 2016): Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its proposed rule to reduce methane emissions...

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more news

FISA "Compromise"?

May 9, 2008 by Amanda Adams*

According to BNA Money and Politics ($$), "Senator John D. Rockefeller (D-WV) is distributing draft legislation meant to advance efforts to reform the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). "For months, lawmakers have been at odds over how to update FISA. A major area of contention has been whether to include language granting retroactive immunity to phone carriers accused of illegally facilitating warrantless wiretapping." Rockefeller is the author of the Senate-approved version (S. 2248) which includes retroactive immunity provisions.

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OMB Watch in the News "Trials of Muslim Charities Likened to a Witch-hunt"

Apr 23, 2008 by Amanda Adams*

IPS News reports; "The U.S. government's anti-terrorist financing programmes are based on the 'guilt by association' tactics of the McCarthy era and have had a widespread negative impact on U.S. charities, critics say. That is the view of Kay Guinane, director of the Nonprofit Speech Rights Programme . . . Guinane told IPS that government actions have resulted in programme cutbacks and increased fear of speaking out on important public issues."

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USAID Tells NGOs It Will Proceed with Plan to Use Secret Watch List

On April 11, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) told an overflow crowd of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Washington, DC, that the agency is moving forward with the widely criticized Partner Vetting System (PVS) it proposed in 2007. PVS will require USAID grantees to submit highly personal information about key personnel and leaders to be checked against a secret government watchlist. Although USAID representatives said some changes have been made based on public comments, details are not available, and there will be no further public comment period before the final rule is announced.

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Oversight of Terrorist Financing Ignores Problems for Nonprofits

An April 1 Senate Finance Committee hearing continued an unfortunate pattern of insufficient congressional oversight of anti-terrorist financing programs, neglecting to address the unnecessarily harsh impacts the programs have on U.S. charities and philanthropy. Despite an OMB Watch request that the committee hear from additional witnesses, members only heard from Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey. Both Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-MT) and Levey raised issues relating to charities that left important questions unasked and unanswered. However, committee staff has agreed to meet with nonprofit representatives.

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OMB Watch Disappointed With One-Sided Hearing on Anti-Terrorist Financing

Apr 3, 2008 by Amanda Adams*

On April 1, OMB Watch issued a press release objecting to a Senate Finance Committee hearing on anti-terrorism financing. During the hearing, Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) referenced a Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report released May 2007 that suggested the Internal Revenue Service should screen U.S. charities against terrorist watch lists.

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New Group to Help Muslim Charities Worldwide

Mar 24, 2008 by Kay Guinane

Today's Chronicle on Philanthropy blog reports on formation of the World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists, an international effort to help Muslim donors and organizations make the public more aware of their work and to increase organizational capacity. The group held a two day inaugural meeting in Istanbul, and will set up offices in the United States and at least one Muslim country. The founder is Tariq H. Cheema, a Pakistani doctor living in Illinois. The blog said,

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Treasury Releases Information on Complaints Made by Individuals Wrongly Placed on Terrorist Watchlist

Mar 19, 2008 by Amanda Adams*

In response to a federal court order, the U.S. Treasury Department released to the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights (LCCR) of the San Francisco Bay Area over 100 pages of documents that show that a terror watch list has wrongly linked ordinary Americans to terrorism.

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House Passes FISA Bill

Mar 14, 2008 by Amanda Adams*

After a closed secret session last night, the House met again this morning (March 14) to debate an amendment to HR 3773. With a vote of 213-197, the measure passed and now will be sent back to the Senate. It is bound to face a lot of opposition in the Senate and unlikely to reach President Bush.

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Fix FISA.com Leahy and Conyers Make A Letter to the Editor Easy

Mar 13, 2008 by Amanda Adams*

You can help! Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Representative John Conyers (D-MI) have made the public's involvement even easier with an online tool to help with the process of writing a letter to your local paper. By typing in your zip code to find your local media outlets, a template for a letter then appears. If you have trouble writing, there are even talking points available to guide you along.

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New FISA Plan This Week in the House

Mar 11, 2008 by Amanda Adams*

House Democrats plan to consider legislation to revise the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) this week. Importantly, the draft proposal would not fall in line with the Senate bill and grant retroactive immunity to phone companies that helped the administration with its warrantless wiretapping program. According to the New York Times, "the tentative proposal would give the federal courts special authorization to hear classified evidence and decide whether the phone companies should be held liable.

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