Although a federal court judge refused to grant the Federal Election Commission (FEC) a stay of a September decision overturning 15 regulations implementing the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, the rules will remain in effect until after the election on Nov. 2. The FEC has appealed the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, challenging the standing of Reps. Chris Shays (R-CT) and Marty Meehan (D-MA) to bring the suit and defending five of the 15 regulations.

Three executive orders have created centers for the Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in many federal agencies. Booklets have been published which provide guidance to faith-based groups on how to get federal funding, and the government has held a series of educational conferences and a catalog of grant opportunities. Recently, both USAID and HUD published final rules implementing a policy ensuring that faith-based organizations are able to compete on equal footing with other organizations for funding.

On Oct. 28 the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) announced that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is investigating their tax-exempt status because Chairman Julian Bond criticized the Bush administration's policies in his speech to the group's July convention. The NAACP is a 501(c)(3) organization, and as such is barred from intervening in elections. The nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization questioned the timing of the IRS action, calling it a politically motivated attempt to silence the organization and discourage blacks from voting.

See this summary of our October 2004 report. Continuing Attacks on Nonprofit Speech: Death By a Thousand Cuts II Executive Summary A Report by OMB Watch October 2004 In July 2003, OMB Watch published An Attack on Nonprofit Speech: Death By a Thousand Cuts, which documented a pattern of attempts to limit the policy voice of nonprofits by the Bush administration and its conservative allies. Over the past year this trend has not only continued, but also expanded. In our newest publication, Continuing Attacks on Nonprofit Speech: Death By a Thousand Cuts II, we found: