Protecting Nonprofit 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

More Details on Sen. Finance Accountability Hearing

Mar 30, 2005 by Guest Blogger

Senate Finance Committee To Hold Hearing On Charities On Tuesday, April 5, 2005 On Tuesday, April 5, 2005 at 10:00 am EST, the Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing titled, “Charities and Charitable Giving: Proposals for Reform.” The hearing will take place in Room 628 Dirksen Senate Office Building. The following witnesses are scheduled to testify: The Honorable Mark Everson, Commissioner, Internal Revenue Service George K. Yin, Chief of Staff, Joint Committee on Taxation Leon Panetta, Director, Panetta Institute for Public Policy

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Op-Ed: The Ideological Shift in the Republican Party

Mar 30, 2005 by Guest Blogger

Great op-ed in the New York Times by former Sen. Danforth (R-MS) regarding how ideology plays a role in the changing of the Republican Party.

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GAO To Investigate Maggie Gallagher Contract With HHS

Mar 28, 2005 by Guest Blogger

The Government Accountability Office will investigate whether the Bush administration broke the law when it paid a syndicated columnist to help its pro-marriage efforts. Click here for the full story. Also, check out a Watcher article on the Maggie Gallagher case.

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As States Tighten Belts, Will Have Impact on Charities

Mar 28, 2005 by Guest Blogger

The Chronicle of Philanthropy has a great article about the tightening of budgets in states across the nation and the impact this is going to have on charities. As states draft their budgets for the 2006 fiscal year, the battles taking shape have a distinctly different tenor from those in the last several years, when deficits forced many state legislatures to make deep cuts in or eliminate programs that subsidize charities and the people they serve. Get the full scoop...(subcription required)

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Ideology Basis for Bush Administration Decisions

Mar 25, 2005 by Guest Blogger

Check out an article by OMB Watch's Gary Bass and Adam Hughes on how ideology is the basis for Bush administration budget decisions.

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New Lobby Disclosure Laws Dropped by Doggett

Mar 24, 2005 by Kay Guinane

Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) introduced two bills on lobby disclosure last week. Here are the links: H.R. 1304, which ammends the IRS code to require certain lobby disclosures H.R. 1302 to amend the Lobby Disclosure Act to require certain lobby disclosures.

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FEC Proposes Draft Rules on Internet Electioneering

Mar 24, 2005 by Guest Blogger

The FEC today proposed draft rules to govern online election-related communications that would provide individual Web logs, or blogs, with a substantial exemption from campaign finance disclosure laws. Most of the reporting requirements would instead fall upon campaigns and candidates who pay for Web advertising, National Journal's Technology Daily reported. But commission members sparred over how narrow the rules should be. "We are not the speech police," said Commissioner Ellen Weintraub. "This issue has nothing to do with private citizens on the Internet.

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Sense of Senate RE: CARE Act passed by UC

Mar 23, 2005 by Guest Blogger

This was passed last week by Unanimous Consent in the Senate. SA 163. Mr. SANTORUM submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the concurrent resolution S. Con. Res. 18, setting forth the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2006 and including the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2005 and 2007 through 2010; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows: At the end of title V, insert the following: SEC. __. SENSE OF THE SENATE REGARDING TAX RELIEF TO ENCOURAGE CHARITABLE GIVING. (a) Findings.--The Senate finds that--

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IS' Nonprofit Panel to Hold Field Mtg in San Diego

Mar 23, 2005 by Guest Blogger

On Sunday, April 10, 2005 at 4:00 pm PST, the Panel on the Nonprofit Sector will hold a Field Meeting at the Council's 56th Annual Conference in San Diego, California. One of a dozen such meetings being held across the country, the San Diego Field Meeting will allow members of the Panel to hear comments and suggestions from the nonprofit community. The meeting is open to conference attendees and the general public.

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Miami Church Says Probe Politically Motivated

Mar 22, 2005 by Guest Blogger

From CQ Mid-day Update: "A Florida church is discovering that life in a political battleground state sometimes means new fights arise even after an election recedes into memory. The IRS has notified Friendship Missionary Baptist Church in Liberty City that it is being investigated for holding "political activities that could jeopardize its tax-exempt status as a church,"

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