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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Senate May Have Hearing on Land Donations

Apr 19, 2005 by Guest Blogger

At an American University College of Law conference on Monday, a Senate Finance Committee staffer indicated that the committee plans to hold another hearing this spring on abuses in the charitable sector. According to the staffer, the hearing will focus on land donations, including the committee’s review of the operations of The Nature Conservancy. The staffer did not indicate a date or time for the hearing.

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Most Nonprofits Already Accountable

Apr 19, 2005 by Guest Blogger

Preliminary results from a survey distributed to hundreds of private, nonprofit, charitable organizations by the Johns Hopkins Nonprofit Listening Post Project during March 2005 revealed that substantial proportions of the country's nonprofit organizations are already utilizing most of the financial disclosure practices under review by the Senate Finance Committee to improve nonprofit governance and accountability. href=http://www.ncna.org/_uploads/documents/live//Communiqe4_Governance_and_ Accountability.pdf ntability.pdf> > Check it out!

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House Hearing on the Tax-Exempt Sector

Apr 19, 2005 by Guest Blogger

Congressman Bill Thomas (R-CA), Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, today announced that the Committee will hold a hearing titled “An Overview of the Tax-Exempt Sector.” The hearing will take place on Wednesday, April 20, 2005, in the main Committee hearing room, 1100 Longworth House Office Building, beginning at 10:30 a.m.

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Bauer Discusses FEC Regulations

Apr 12, 2005 by Guest Blogger

Bob Bauer talks about the effect of the FEC regulations. Check it out!

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OMB Watch Letter to the Senate Opposing Santorum Amendment

Read the text of OMB Watch's open letter to the Senate urging the opposition of Sen. Rick Santorum's amendment to the Social Services Block Grant to include charitable choice provisions.

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Statements From Finance Cmte Hearing on Web

Apr 6, 2005 by Guest Blogger

The Senate Finance Committee posted the testimony from yesterday's hearing on nonprofit revenue-raisers and accountabilty. Sens. Schumer and Santorum had some interesting remarks noting that some of the accountabilty measures will be unduly burdensome on small nonprofits. Santorum raised the additional point that it is uncertain whether more vigilant enforcement by the IRS would make nonprofits more accountable. Hopefully, they will continue to stand their ground as legislation moves forward.

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Listen Live Now!

Apr 5, 2005 by Guest Blogger

Listen live to Senate Finance Hearing NOW! SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE Charitable Giving Reform Full committee hearing on "Charities and Charitable Giving: Proposals for Reform." Witnesses: IRS Commissioner Mark Everson; George Yin, chief of staff, Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation; Leon Panetta, director, Panetta Institute for Public Policy; Jane Gravelle, senior specialist in economic policy, Congressional Research Service; Richard Johnson, member, Waller Lansden Dortch and Davis, PLLC, Nashville, Tenn.; Mike Hatch, Minnesota attorney general,

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NCRP Offers Critique of IS' Recommendations

Apr 4, 2005 by Guest Blogger

The nation's only philanthropic watchdog, the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP), today issued a critique of proposals on charitable accountability that are being considered by the Senate Finance Committee on April 5th. "Despite having raised more than $3 million to support their work, a panel of nonprofit leaders has generated paltry and picayune accountability recommendations that will accomplish little or nothing to cure the accountability problems facing the nonprofit sector", observed Rick Cohen, NCRP's Executive Director. Check out the critique.

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Doggett Introduces Lobby Disclosure Bills

On March 13, Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) introduced two versions of his "Stealth Lobbyist Disclosure Act of 2005" (H.R. 1302), a proposed amendment of the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 (LDA), and H.R. 1304, which modifies the Internal Revenue Code to treat lobbying coalitions as political organizations under Section 527 of the tax code and require more disclosure of their lobbying activities. H.R. 1302

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Florida Church Is Subject of IRS Inquiry for Political Activities

On Feb. 15, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) notified a Liberty City, FL, church that it is under investigation for engaging in partisan political activity. The investigation stems from an October 2004 appearance at a service by Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-MA). If the church is found to have engaged in prohibited political activity, it could lose its tax-exempt status.

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