The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has published a fact sheet for PACs (Section 527 organizations) detailing new exemptions and filing requirements in order to comply with this fall's Congressional amendments to the Stealth PAC law of 2000. The amendments were designed to eliminate duplicative reporting for PACs that work on state and local elections, and to improve the usefulness of information on federal elections by making it available on the web in searchable form. See the outline of the new rules and the detailed IRS Fact Sheet.

OMB Watch announces the pilot launch of NPAction, a new online resource for nonprofit advocacy. NPAction is being developed as a vibrant central advocacy hub that provides nonprofits access to information about rules governing policy participation, examples of successful and unsuccessful efforts, and identification of key resources. Our goal is to increase the awareness of groups already engaged in public policy participation, and to, thereby, enhance opportunities for building communities of interest among new and emerging and existing public policy participators. We are working live behind the scenes to continuously improve our offerings. Nonprofits are therefore encouraged to actively explore what's available, suggest their own ideas for resources to add, and provide comments on our work to date. Visit NPAction today!

While the capacity to engage citizens in greater civic participation and interaction with goverment, questions linger as to whether the willingness of citizens to engage through digital government, especially those at the margins-- like young people.

Send us your comments on the Universal Identifier for Grant Applicants by visiting our forum on grant streamlining. As part of its effort to streamline the federal grants process, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has proposed that each nonprofit grant applicant be assigned a single identification number through the Dun and Bradstreet Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) -- the same system used by for-profit corporations for federal contracts.