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home > legislative update > 3.14.08
Update from Congress: On Wednesday, March 12th, the House of Representatives passed by voice vote the noncontroversial HR 3361- the Technical Corrections to the Pension Protection Act. The legislation, which makes only technical changes to the Pension Protection Act of 2006, now heads to the Senate for their consideration. The legislation, in its current form, contains no technical fix to any of the charitable portions of the Pension Protection Act (PPA).
We expect the Senate to strip out virtually all of the language of the House's version of this bill and replace it with their version of the Technical Corrections to the PPA (that was passed by the Senate last year). The Senate version contains a provision that makes a clarifying change to the IRA Charitable Rollover provision passes as part of the PPA.
For a detailed summary of the Technical Corrections legislation passed by the House of Representatives, click here.
For the Senate's clarifying change to the IRA Charitable Rollover provision that was passed last year, click here.
Upcoming Challenge: Last year, just before adjourning the session, Congress enacted a one-year "fix" to the growing problems presented by the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). Unless Congress acts again on this year, this tax will affect millions more taxpayers. Given the challenge of legislating in an election year, it is expected that Congress will simply delay the debate over the AMT for another year and will, at some point, pass another one-year "fix". However, the need to address the AMT, along with a number of other popular expiring tax provisions, underscores a larger challenge that Congress will confront in the next couple of years - fundamental tax reform.
In fact, we are aware of at least one member of the Ways and Means Committee that has met with foundations in his district to discuss proposed tax reform plans and the consequences those plans may have on the foundation and larger charitable community. Future tax reform debates will likely center on the redistribution of wealth - and foundations, given their largesse and resources, could be seen as a target in this redistribution.
While this debate is not likely to be in full swing until next year, hearings could occur this year.
California: ACR launched an aggressive advocacy campaign on behalf of its California members against California AB 624. As you may recall AB 624 (amended several times) - sponsored by Assemblyman Joe Coto - would require foundations with assets over $250 million to track and publicly disclose the race, ethnicity and gender of their board and staff. AB 624 also requires foundations to track the number and dollar amount of grants given to minority, low-income, LGBT and other underserved communities.
Currently, AB 624 is awaiting considering by the California State Senate and may be the subject of a hearing this coming April. The legislation has undergone several changes since its introduction. A comparison sheet of the old vs the new legislation can be found here.
Thus far, opposition to AB 624 has been substantial and many prominent organizations have sent in their formal opposition to AB 624. If your organization wants to learn more about AB 624 or become more involved in the Alliance's campaign against this bill, please email Chris Fox.
New York and beyond: We understand that the same organization -- the Greenlining Institute -- that fomented the legislative action on AB624 in California is readying a report on foundations headquartered in New York. We expect this report to focus squarely on grant-making by New York's largest foundations to minority-led organizations.
To learn more about this issue, please click here. |
