In a speech at the White House last week, the President noted that contributions to many charities have declined, and urged Congress to pass the CARE Act (S. 1924), the faith-based compromise bill sponsored by Sens. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) and Rick Santorum (R-PA) as one way to address the problem. The bill has incentives for charitable giving, including a deduction for contributions by nonitemizers, and provisions for equal treatment of faith-based and other organizations in the federal grantmaking process.

Background About the NPT Project OMB Watch has been involved in a three-year effort called the Nonprofits' Policy and Technology (NPT) Project to provide and identify opportunities for nonprofits to: learn about and utilize newer technologies for public policy activities; improve communication and coordination between technology and public policy professionals in the nonprofit sector; and to increase the accessibility to -- and comfort level with -- these tools.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has said that state and local PACs that have failed to register could owe millions in penalties, and they are evaluating how to proceed.

On March 13, 2002, the research arm of Congress, the Congressional Research Service (CRS), released an analysis of legislative proposals to deduct charitable contributions for those who do not itemize their taxes. Based on the economic effect of the deduction, they conclude that, "the impact of the proposed deduction on charitable giving is likely to be relatively small…" CRS levels other criticisms of the non-itemizer deduction, but also offers three approaches to improving the proposals pending in Congress. The table below summarizes the CRS findings.