| Issue
|
Bill
|
House
|
Senate
|
Final
|
IS Position |
| Advocacy |
HR 235,
the Houses
of Worship Political Speech Protection Act, would modify section
501(c)(3) of the tax code to allow churches to engage in
political campaign activities without jeopardizing their
tax-exempt status. |
Rep. Walter B. Jones
(R-NC)
introduced this bill on January 8, 2003. It now has 165
co-sponsors. Referred to House Ways & Means
Committee. |
|
|
Independent Sector opposes the
elimination of current restrictions on engagement in partisan
political activity by charitable nonprofit organizations.
IS letter
to House on HR 235. |
|
Estate Tax |
HR 8, the Death Tax
Permanency Repeal Act, would permanently repeal the estate tax. |
HR 8 passed on June 18, 2003. |
Placed on the Senate calendar on
June 20, 2003. |
|
Independent Sector opposes
measures that would negatively impact gifts to charity and
shrink state and federal revenue. |
|
Charitable Giving |
HR
7, the Charitable Giving Act, and
S 476, the CARE
Act, both offer incentives to increase charitable giving. |
HR 7
passed on Sept. 17, 2003, on a 408-to-13 vote. The bill was
referred to the Senate Finance Committee on December 9, 2003. |
Senators passed S 476 on April 9, 2003, on a 95-to-5 vote.
A House-Senate conference to settle the two bills’ differences
did not take place. |
|
Independent Sector supports
legislation that would increase charitable donations.
IS letter to Senate
leaders. IS letter to
President Bush.
More |
|
Charitable Giving |
S 1637,
and
HR 4520,
the Foreign Sales Corporation Tax bill, each include a provision regarding
vehicle donations.
|
HR 4520 was passed by the House on June 17, 2004. |
S 1637 passed the Senate on May 11, 2004. The Senate
amended and passed HR 4520 on July 15 and has appointed
conferees.
|
Conference report on HR 4520 was passed on October 11, 2004
containing limits on
vehicle and
patent
donations |
INDEPENDENT SECTOR
supports tax incentives for charitable giving, including in-kind
gifts, but shares congressional concerns about the integrity of
establishing and enforcing protections against taxpayer abuses. |
|
Nonprofit
Commun-ications |
HR
4600,
S 2603 the Junk Fax Prevention Act, would restore the "established
business relationship" (EBR) exemption, which was repealed by
the FCC. The bill also requires an opt-out for recipients who no
longer want to receive certain faxes. |
HR
4600 was passed by the House on July 20. It was introduced June 16, 2004 by Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), passed
by Energy and Commerce Committee on June 24, 2004. |
S 2603 was passed by the Senate on
December 8, 2004. It was introduced on June 24,
2004 by Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR) and passed by the Senate
Commerce Committee on July 22. |
|
INDEPENDENT SECTOR supported this legislation. IS also
filed comments
with the FCC requesting that faxes from nonprofits in
pursuit of their tax-exempt purpose be exempt from the rule.
More |
|
Nonprofit
Security |
S 2275,
HR 4108, the
High Risk Nonprofit Security Enhancement Act,
to provide homeland security assistance for high-risk nonprofits
to protect them against foreign terrorist attacks |
HR 4108 was introduced on April 1,
2004, by Rep. George Nethercutt (R-WA) |
S. 2275 was passed by the Senate
Governmental Affairs Committee on July 21. It was
introduced on
April 1, 2004, by Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) |
$25 million in funding for this bill was added to the
Homeland Security bill (HR 4567) which was signed into law on Oct. 18, 2004 |
Independent Sector supported
this legislation.
|
Copyright ©
2004 Independent Sector. All Rights Reserved.
