House Ways and Means Committee

Pettiness Creates Bad Tax Policy

Mar 30, 2010 by Gary Therkildsen*

My tax policies leave this much to be desired

Earlier this month, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) introduced legislation that would require the government to fire federal workers who fail to pay their taxes, and prevent the government from hiring those with "seriously delinquent tax debts." According to Chaffetz, his proposal is perfectly in keeping with President Obama's recent effort to prevent tax delinquent companies from winning government contracts. Chaffetz's reasoning, however, is grossly oversimplified, and his bill, which is resultantly flawed, looks like a knee-jerk attempt at retribution for the private sector.

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Who's Answering the Phones at the IRS?

Mar 16, 2010 by Gary Therkildsen*

Hello...is anybody In There...Just Nod if You Can Hear me

Have you recently tried calling the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to ask a question about your taxes? If you have, there's a good chance that the IRS never picked up. If you were lucky enough for your call to go through, you likely spent about 12 minutes on hold before you spoke to an IRS representative. National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson highlighted these and other problems faced by taxpayers when she testified at a hearing this afternoon in front of the Oversight Subcommittee of the House Committee on Ways and Means.

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Digging Ourselves out of the $7 Trillion National Debt

The growing national debt and deficits as far as the eye can see prompt varied reactions.

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Tools You Can Use - Links to Various Resources

Listing of useful federal budget and tax resources for nonprofits. Prepared for the Federation for Community Planning's "Federal Budget Training Academy" held in DC September 21-24, 2003.

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Foundation Expenses, Charitable Giving to be Debated in the House

Should foundation administrative expenses count toward their required annual 5 percent “payout,” or should only grants count? A controversial provision of the Charitable Giving Act (H.R. 7) eliminates all administrative expenses from the payout requirement, and will be debated at a mark-up scheduled for Tuesday, September 10 in the House Ways and Means Committee.

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House Republicans Institute Dynamic Scoring; Waive Debt-Ceiling Votes

Included among its questionable first actions in the 108th Congress, the Republican-led House Ways and Means Committee made two new troubling rule changes that will govern House legislation around the federal budget.

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Super-Waiver Update

The "super-waiver" has made its way through both the House Ways and Means Committee and the Committee on Education and the Workforce. The two bills will have to be joined in the Rules Committee and will likely be on the House floor the week of May 13. The current list of programs eligible for the super-waiver remains small but significant -- CCDBG, TANF, SSBG, the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act, Wagner-Peyser (Employment Services), and the Job Opportunities for Low-Income Individuals program ? and it is possible that other programs could be added.

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Update: Super-Waiver is the Wrong Tool for the Job

Since being introduced as part of the TANF reauthorization bills earlier this month, the President’s "super-waiver" provision has undergone several significant revisions. The original provisions included in Rep. Wally Herger's (R-CA) H.R. 4090, and Rep. Buck McKeon's (R-CA) H.R. 4092, TANF bills allowed for governors to request a waiver of any statute or rule applied to any program in the Departments of Labor, HHS, and Education. All that would be required of the governor was a proposal showing how the waiver was neutral in cost. The Secretary of the petitioned department would have 90 days to sign off on the proposal, and if the state received no response within 90 days, the proposal could be deemed approved.

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Super-Waiver Update! (April 19, 2002)

A legislative provision with far-reaching effects that should be of concern to all nonprofits has passed two House subcommittees in the TANF welfare reauthorization bill.

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Watch Out For The Super-Waiver

The new "super-waiver" legislation proposed in the House is dangerously broad and should be opposed by all nonprofits concerned with social justice.

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