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

Nonprofit Sues US Gov't for Retracting Grant on Bias

Aug 22, 2005 by Guest Blogger

DKT International, a nonprofit organization that works to prevent HIV/AIDS worldwide, has sued the US Agency for International Development (USAID) for its retraction of a grant when DKT refused to sign a pledge opposing sex work. In June, DKT applied for a $60,000 subgrant to market condom lubricants in Vietnam. The grant was initially approved, but rescinded when DKT refused to sign the pledge.

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Utah TV Station Refuses to Air Anti-War Ad

Aug 22, 2005 by Guest Blogger

A Utah television station is refusing to air an anti-war ad bought by Gold Star Families for Peace, featuring Cindy Sheehan, whose son's death in Iraq prompted a vigil outside President Bush's Texas ranch. The ad began airing on other area stations Saturday, two days before Bush was scheduled to speak in Salt Lake City to the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. In the ad, Sheehan pleads with Bush for a meeting and accuses him of lying to the American people about Iraq's development of weapons of mass destruction and its connection to al-Qaida.

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Roberts Weighed In On Rights of Gov't Grantees

Aug 19, 2005 by Guest Blogger

From Today's Washington Post:

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Cleveland United Ways Mandating Checking Watch List

Aug 19, 2005 by Guest Blogger

One of Cleveland's most influential charities is asking its member agencies to look for terrorists among their employees and will withhold donations if they refuse. United Way Services of Greater Cleveland officials say they are just doing what the parent organization, United Way of America recommended. And, they say, they're complying with the USA Patriot Act. The U.S. Justice Department can't find any reference in the act that specifically requires nonprofits to check employee names against its suspected terrorist lists.

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TIGTA Recommends Better Monitoring of 527 Groups

Aug 19, 2005 by Guest Blogger

A Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report released today said 527 political organizations are not always reporting contribution and expenditure information completely or in a timely manner.

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IRS Needs To Modernize Computers, Says TIGTA

Aug 19, 2005 by Guest Blogger

The Internal Revenue Service's Business Systems Modernization program, a multiyear effort aimed at wholly reconstructing the agency's computer systems, showed improvements during fiscal year 2004 but still suffers from weaknesses in several of its management practices, a Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report released Aug. 18 concluded.

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A Challenge to Restrictions on Legal Services Programs: Dobbins v. Legal Services Corporation

Since 1996, the federal Legal Services Corporation (LSC), which funds legal services for the poor, has placed severe restrictions how its funds can be used, and extended these restrictions to private funds raised by legal services programs. In December 2001 four legal service programs in New York City, a private charity and pro bono attorney filed suit against the Legal Services Corporation challenging the constitutionality of restrictions. On December 20, 2004 the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York struck down application of the rule imposing the restrictions on private funding of legal aid groups. The judge denied the plaintiffs' challenge to the restrictions on direct LSC funding. The case, which has broad implications for the nonprofit sector, is under appeal.

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Ney Criticizes Common Cause for Failure to File LDA Rept.

Aug 17, 2005 by Guest Blogger

Common Cause, a political reform organization that has frequently criticized Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) and other House Republican leaders, was itself blasted by Ney for a lapse in filing a lobbying disclosure report due earlier this year. Ney said a delay by Common Cause in filing a report under the Lobbying Disclosure Act proved that procedural changes are needed, including a move to electronic filing of lobbying reports.

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FEC Draft Rulemaking on Electioneering Communications

Aug 16, 2005 by Guest Blogger

The FEC released the General Counsel’s proposed changes in the rules on "electioneering communications": communications paid by corporations and unions that, because they refer to a federal candidate, cannot be aired within 30 days of a primary and 60 days of a general election. This is another in a series of adjustments to the Shays v. FEC litigation. The District Court had rejected one aspect of the Commission’s EC rule and complained that another was insufficiently considered and explained. Now the General Counsel has a new rule to offer. Especially concerning nonprofits are:

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ACS and CAP Brown Bag on Church-State and Roberts

Aug 16, 2005 by Guest Blogger

WHAT:Church-State Issues and the Roberts Nomination WHO:American Constitution Society Center for American Progress Brown Bag Lunch Series WHERE:Wednesday, August 17, 2005, Noon-1:30pm 106 Dirksen Senate Office Building

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