Senate Finance Committee Passes Amended CARE Act - June 24, 2002 Vol. 3 No. 13

June 24, 2002 Vol. 3 No. 13:

Published: 06/24/2002

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Senate Finance Committee Passes Amended CARE Act

The Senate Finance Committee passed the Chair's amended version of the CARE Act (S. 1924, the Lieberman-Santorum compromise on the President's faith-based initiative) on June 18 by a voice vote.

The main portions of the bill create new incentives for charitable giving and specify equal treatment of faith-based and secular nonprofits when applying for federal grants. It also simplifies the rules on lobbying by 501(c)(3) groups that use the expenditure test in the IRS rules, by doing away with the distinction between direct and grassroots lobbying, but continuing the use of the direct lobbying expenditure ceiling.

It is not clear whether the bill will come up on the Senate floor before the summer recess. Some Senators, including Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), have raised concerns about the cost of the bill, and whether the revenue raising offsets it contains are sufficient. Finance Committee member Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) has said he opposes the deduction for non-itemizers because it is "not good tax policy," but he does support a provision that allows deductions for gifts made from rollovers of Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA). Because $2.5 trillion dollars are held in IRAs the potential for new giving from this provision is huge. However, there is concern that charities that serve low-income households, may not be well-positioned to get donations from those with IRA’s negating an important purpose of the tax incentive package.

See for more details on the Finance Committee version of the CARE Act.