Following a press conference sponsored by Americans for Community and Faith-Centered Enterprise and the Charitable Giving Coalition last Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) agreed to seek agreement on rules of debate so the CARE Act ( S. 1924) could go the Senate floor during the week of July 22. CARE Act sponsors Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT) and Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) spoke at the press conference, and said they expect the bill to be considered before the August recess. However, several Senators have objected to floor debate unless amendments are allowed. Sen.

The Internal Revenue Service expects to develop an electronic filing system for nonprofits to file Form 990, the annual information return required of most groups. Terry Lutes, director of the IRS's Electronic Tax administration, told participants in a July 9 web audio broadcast sponsored by the IRS that he is working with software developers to develop better e filing systems.

The Federal Election Commission announced that it will be not be ready to consider proposed regulations on issue advocacy on July 25, as had been planned. A new date has not been set, and other rulemakings, including a proceeding to define illegal coordination between campaigns and donors and advocacy groups, are also likely to be delayed. The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA) requires that all rulemakings be completed by the end of the year.

In the wake of the widening corporate accounting scandals, both the House and Senate have passed versions of corporate accountability and reform legislation. As reported in a previous Watcher, on April 24, the House passed the "Corporate and Auditing Accountability, Responsibility, and Transparency Act" (H.R. 3763), while the Senate passed its version (S. 2673) last Monday, July 15th. The conference committee that will hammer out the differences between the House and Senate version was appointed on Wednesday, July 17th, and has promised to be finished with the legislation by July 26th.