Washington Snapshot - December 6, 2013
Welcome to December! We hope that all of our readers had an enjoyable Thanksgiving with family and friends, and a Happy Hanukkah!
Thune-Wyden Letter on the Charitable Deduction
As this YouTube wrap-up of the day reveals, the Charitable Giving Coalition's D.C. fly-in generated buzz about the charitable deduction on Capitol Hill and in the news. In the wake of the fly-in, many of the Council’s members, like Briggen Wrinkle of the Community Foundation serving Southwest Colorado, have also been actively speaking up about the value of the deduction. As Wrinkle says, “[f]or nearly 100 years, the charitable deduction has served as the bedrock of our altruistic society and is a model for the world. It must continue as a fundamental tenet of our income tax system.”
On the day of the fly-in, Senators John Thune (R-SD) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) announced a letter to Senators Max Baucus (D-MT) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT), the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Finance Committee—urging them to preserve the current charitable deduction. The letter underscores growing bipartisan congressional support for the deduction, and it is being circulated on the Hill for additional signatures from other senators. This is where you come in!
The Thune-Wyden letter is an important step towards protecting the charitable deduction. Yet, it is critical for the sector to continue to educate policymakers about the impact of the charitable deduction on the communities you serve as Congress searches for revenue in the tax reform process. And, as a constituent, your voice is especially powerful.
Feel free to contact your senators and urge them to join Senators Wyden and Thune by signing this letter by December 12th!
Check out the coverage of the Thune-Wyden letter in The Hill, KATU News, The Oregonian, Associations Now, and many other publications!
You can also sign the Coalition’s Change.Org petition, which asks the President and Congress to preserve the charitable deduction in its current form as they negotiate on the deficit and consider comprehensive tax reform. And, go to the Protect Giving YouTube channel to hear personal accounts about the invaluable impact of the deduction across the country or to add your own story to the mix.
Tax Policy Happenings
Tax Reform on hold until 2014
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI-4) said publicly this week that he won’t release a tax reform draft this year. This is not a surprising development, and with the budget resolution deadline next week and relatively few days left on the 2013 calendar, we’ve been anticipating this postponement of action until 2014. House Republican leaders met with Camp last month and asked him to table tax reform until other legislative issues, like the Affordable Care Act rollout, were resolved.
