Nonprofit Speech Rights

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

SpeechNow Challenges FEC Contribution Limits for Independent Political Groups

SpeechNow.org, an independent organization whose stated mission is to advocate for the election of federal candidates who favor free political speech, has filed a lawsuit challenging federal campaign finance laws that prohibit contributions of more than $5,000 per year to political committees as an unconstitutional violation of free speech and association rights.

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Senate Bill Would Regulate Robocalls during Election Campaigns

On Feb. 12, Senate Rules Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) introduced S. 2624, the Robocall Privacy Act of 2008. The bill would place restrictions on how and when prerecorded messages, known as robocalls, can be made 30 days before a primary and 60 days before a general election. The bill would only affect prerecorded calls, not calls made by volunteers at phone banks.

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New IRS Fact Sheets

Feb 15, 2008 by Amanda Adams*

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has released two important fact sheets for tax exempt organizations. One is on the IRS complaint process, and the other is on the examination and compliance checks process. The referral form to make a complaint against a tax exempt organization can be found here.

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Inconsistent Enforcement: IRS Findings in NAACP and All Saints Church Cases

A comparison of two high profile IRS investigations into allegations of election intervention - the All Saints Church and NAACP cases -highlights the vagueness of the regulation and the inconsistency of IRS enforcement. According to OMB Watch's analysis, the facts and circumstances of the All Saints Church and NAACP cases are very similar, but the IRS findings were very different.

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SpeechNow.org to File Lawsuit

Feb 14, 2008 by Amanda Adams*

As expected after the Federal Election Commission (FEC) issued a draft advisory opinion in January that SpeechNow.org cannot accept unlimited contributions from donors, the group plans to now file a federal lawsuit. SpeechNow.org is challenging the campaign finance law that requires that they become a "political committee" in order to advocate for or against candidates.

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IRS investigates pastor supporting Huckabee

Feb 14, 2008 by Amanda Adams*

The IRS is investigating a California pastor's involvement in the presidential campaign of Republican Mike Huckabee. Pastor Wiley Drake, of Buena Park First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, California received a letter from the IRS stating, "Because a reasonable belief exists that the Church has engage in political activities that could jeopardize its tax-exempt status as a church under section 501(a), this letter is notice of the beginning of a church tax inquiry described in IRC section 7611(a)." The Alliance Defense Fund is serving as Mr. Drake's counsel in the matter.

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OMB Watch up for Online Advocacy Award

Feb 13, 2008 by Matthew Madia

Do you like OMB Watch? Would you like to boost our fragile self-esteem? Then please vote for us in the Golden Dot Awards, presented annually for excellence in online campaigning by the Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet at George Washington University. OMB Watch has been nominated for Best Issue Advocacy Blog. The nomination is for all three of our blogs: Advocacy Blog, Budget Blog, and Reg•Watch. Vote here: polc.ipdi.org/GoldenDots/voting.htm (OMB Watch has the utmost respect for the other candidates and has vowed to run a clean campaign.)

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Discussion on the 2008 Election

Feb 12, 2008 by Amanda Adams*

Kay Guinane, director of nonprofit speech rights for OMB Watch and Laurette Edelmann, assistant director of the New Hampshire Center for Nonprofits, discussed the 2008 election and its impact on philanthropy. Read the transcript of the online discussion here.

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Citizens United Case

Feb 12, 2008 by Amanda Adams*

Another case is on "the fast track." The Supreme Court's online docket shows that the Citizens United motion to expedite the case is on the Court's conference agenda for February 15.

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Lawsuit Challenging Lobbying Disclosure Law Could Be Decided by April

Feb 12, 2008 by Amanda Adams*

BNA Money and Politics ($$) reports that the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) lawsuit that is trying to block enforcement of a disclosure provision of the new lobbying and ethics law, has in fact been put on a fast-track schedule that could lead to a court decision before the first disclosure reports are due on April 21. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said in a court order filed Feb. 8 that a briefing schedule was agreed on that ends in March. All parties agreed to convert the application for a preliminary injunction to a request for a decision on the merits.

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