Under pressure from nonprofit groups, the Office of Personnel Management, the independent federal agency that manages civil service government employment, proposed last month to drop an unclear certification requirement discouraging nonprofits from conducting legally-permissible issue advocacy. On May 24, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued a proposed rule that would significantly change the "eligibility requirements and public accountability standards" for charities participating in the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC), a fundraising drive conducted every Sept. through Dec. that allows federal employees to donate directly to participating organizations of their choice. Currently, organizations applying to participate in the CFC are required to certify that "the organization has no expenses connected with lobbying and attempts to influence voting or legislation at the local, State, or Federal level or alternatively, that those expenses would classify the organization as a tax-exempt organization under U.S.C. 501(h)." (5 CFR 950.202(c)) The proposed rule would remove the certification requirement completely. The rule states, "OPM proposes to remove this standard because it is already a requirement for charitable organizations to qualify as a tax-exempt entity under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and to maintain that status with the IRS. In addition, some applicant organizations have misinterpreted the standard to mean no lobbying is permitted, when in fact, lobbying is permissible if consistent with Internal Revenue Code requirements." Some nonprofit groups applying to receive donations through the CFC have read the certification requirement as prohibiting nonprofits from engaging in legally permissible lobbying. Many have also misconstrued the requirement as a prohibition on lobbying for any 501(c)(3) that is not a 501(h) elector. Clarifying this requirement was especially important due to the large number of organizations (22,000 in 2005) participating in the CFC. According to Liz Towne, Director of Advocacy Programs at Alliance for Justice: In March 2003, we raised our concern that the application language was inaccurate and discouraged advocacy organizations from participating in the CFC Combined Federal Campaign. It is great to see that the CFC has followed through and dropped the confusing, redundant question altogether and we hope this results in more advocacy organizations participating in the program. Alliance for Justice worked with OPM for over three years to remove the certification requirement. OPM will accept comments on the proposed rule until Aug. 14