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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Limited CARE Bill Passes Senate Finance Committee

For more information see our summary of both bills. Tax policy expert Matt Hamill of the Institute for Higher Education Policy has put together a comparison of the charitable giving portions of H.R. 7, CARE Act 2002 and 2003 and the Bush Budget for FY 04.

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Summary of New CARE Bills

On February 5th the Senate Finance Committee passed a scaled back version of the Charity Aid, Relief and Empowerment Act of 2003 that has tax incentives for giving. However, Senators Rick Santorum (R-PA), Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) have filed another version of CARE, that also has the “equal treatment” provisions on federal grants. Summaries of both bills are below. Jump to Summary of S 272. Summary and Analysis of New Senate CARE Bill: S. 256 (Without “Equal Treatment” Provisions) Title: Charity Aid, Relief and Empowerment Act of 2003

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IRS Offers Nonprofit Workshops

The Internal Revenue Service is offering free workshops for small and mid-sized nonprofits in twelve locations around the country. The workshops will cover exemption filing requirements, public disclosure obligations and other topics. Pre-registration by phone or email is required. For specifics see the IRS website.

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Sentences for Violations of BCRA Set

The United States Sentencing Commission has proposed interim sentencing guidelines for increased penalties for violations of campaign finance law, incorporating requirements from last year’s Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA). OMB Watch filed comments in December 2002 asking that the emergency guidelines treat illegal electioneering communications more leniently than illegal campaign contributions or soft money expenditures, since “contributions of money can only be meant to influence an election.

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NPTalk Turns to NPAction; New Features Added

We wish to thank everyone who supported NPTalk during its first four years. We are pleased to announce NPTalk's integration with NPAction, OMB Watch's online resource for nonprofit advocacy. NPAction, currently in its pilot phase, offers a wide range of policy information and tools. Please take a moment to include your organization in the Resource Directory, and explore our work to date. Your thoughts will help inform the official version of the site, slated for launch in Spring 2003.

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Scaled Down Church Electioneering Bill Introduced

We are collecting feedback from nonprofits on how much partisan electioneering powers can help or hurt 501(c)(3) organizations. What do you think? Could taking sides be a good investment of your group's time, money, or political capital? What are the dangers, and can they be avoided? If so, how? You can provide us with input through our online forum on NPAction.org Last fall, after the House defeated a bill that would have allowed religious organizations to engage in partisan electioneering, sponsor Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) promised to re-introduce the bill in the next Congress. On January 8 he followed through by introducing the Houses of Worship Free Speech Restoration Act, H.R. 235), which attempts to address concerns raised about last year’s bill by narrowing the scope of what it allows. It currently has thirteen co-sponsors and has been referred to the Ways and Means Committee.

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IRS News

Nonprofits that wish to comment on changes in IRS Form 990 have until January 28 to submit their recommendations on proposed changes in the areas of fundraising, organizational accountability, foreign grants and PACs. For more information, see the OMB Watch summary of proposed changes.

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Agencies Going Full Steam Ahead With Faith-Based Initiative

Since the President issued an Executive Order on December 12, 2002, requiring equal treatment of faith-based and secular organizations when applying for federal grants, three agencies have taken action to fill in the details with provisions that look very much like H.R. 7, the controversial version of charitable choice that passed the House of Representatives in 2001. Both the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) are seeking public comments on their proposed new grant regulations.

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HUD Proposes Rules for Faith-Based Grantees

On January 6 the Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed new regulations implementing the President’s December 12, 2002 Executive Order requiring “equal treatment” of faith-based organizations in the federal grant process. The proposal is similar to regulations proposed last month by the Department of Health and Human Services. Public comments are due March 7, 2003.

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Comments to OMB on Universal ID Number for Federal Grantees

OMB has proposed a policy requiring all federal agencies to use a common identifying number for all federal grant applicants and grantees. Our comments support this concept, but oppose proposed use of Dun and Bradstreet's system for this purpose. You can download the original copy of our comments, or read the summary here: December 30, 2002 Sandra R. Swab Office of Federal Financial Management, OMB Room 6025 New Executive Office Building Washington, D.C. 20503 RE: DUNS Comments Proposed Policy of Use of a Universal Identifier by Grant Applicants Dear Ms. Swab,

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