The House Ways and Means Committee will vote Monday June 14 on a bill that would give religious organizations a huge margin of error when they "unintentionally" engage in illegal partisan election activity. Section 692 of the bill, American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 (HR 4520), reduces penalties for "unintentional violations" of the IRS ban on partisan activity by religious groups. Religious groups with no more than three violations in one calendar year will be shielded from revocation of their tax-exempt status and instead be charged minor fines.

On June 1 Senate Finance Committee Chair Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Ranking Member Max Baucus (D-MT) announced a hearing on charitable giving problems and best practices. The announcement said the hearing, scheduled for the morning of June 22nd, will address the following issues: åá Governance and best practices of charities; åá Charities accommodating tax shelters; åá Donor gifts of tangible and intangible property; and åá Current problems and issues in the charitable community.

A May 12 report by the Treasury Department's Inspector General for Tax Administration found that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has complied with a 2002 Congressional mandate to make its website disclosing finances of Section 527 political committees searchable. However, the report said improvements are needed.

On May 13, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) voted to delay for 90-days action on a proposed new rule extending federal regulation to independent political committees. House Administration Committee Chair Robert Ney (R-OH) immediately set and held a hearing May 20, to shed some light on what questions and issues Committee members have about the rule, and what action the FEC might take at the end of the 90-day period. All agreed that no action on the rule is likely to take effect this year.