The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) released a study on the impact pending legislation could have on grant amounts awarded by private foundations. The study, titled A Billion Here, A Billion There: The Empirical Data Add Up is available in PDF format on the NCRP website. A press release summarizes their findings.

Soft money disclosure information became searchable and downloadable on the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) site July 1st, meeting a deadline set by Congress last November. The disclosure information is reported to the IRS by political action committees (PACs) under a law passed in 2000. The website only allows searches of reports that filed electronically. Over the past two years, most reports have been filed on paper and are available in PDF format. Beginning this month, PACs that raise or spend more than $50,000 a year will be required to file their reports electronically, so that the amount of searchable information will increase over time.

July 2, 2003 Dear Head Start Colleague: The purpose of this letter is to clear-up any possible confusion concerning my letter of May 8, 2003 reminding grantees of the existence of laws governing lobbying and certain political activities. As a general matter we are all at liberty to contact our representatives about our political thoughts and concerns.

On June 24th, The Century Foundation sponsored a briefing at The National Press Club to discuss its recent publication of The War on Our Freedoms: Civil Liberties in an Age of Terrorism. Four contributors to the book commented on the wide-ranging implications of the war on terrorism on civil liberties, including increased domestic surveillance and government secrecy. Overall, the panel agreed that many of the policies enacted in order to prevent another terrorist attack, in addition to disrupting the right balance between liberty and security, have not been effective