David Callahan argues that 501(c)(3) charities engaged
in "policy advocacy" should be required to disclose their donors and that the
deductibility of large gifts to such organizations should be limited (beyond,
one assumes, the existing limits on deducting charitable gifts). There are
so many things about this op-ed that cry out for comment and correction,
but let me highlight just one:
While acknowledging that "[i]t would be difficult to define which groups belong in the
new advocacy category," Callahan seeks to distinguish the 501(c)(3)s that
engage in "policy advocacy" and would be subject to heightened disclosure from
"traditional 501(c)3’s —
museums and universities, for example." Mr. Callahan is clearly ignorant of the degree
to which such "traditional" institutions engage in significant lobbying and
other advocacy of policymakers at the federal, state, and local level.
Harvard, to take just one example, reported half a million dollars in federal
lobbying in 2010.
This
op-ed's proposal is astonishing given the already sweeping restrictions on
advocacy by 501(c)(3)s -- significant restrictions on lobbying and an absolute
ban on political campaign intervention (far more sweeping than any court
would countenance for a non-exempt organization) -- but the proposal was
entirely predictable as part of the ongoing effort to try to prohibit, restrict,
or otherwise chill political and policy speech.
In 2004, advocates for greater
campaign finance regulation, assured us that they were only interested in
regulating 527 organizations, not 501(c)s. They ridiculed concerns that
527s were only the first step on a slippery slope. When it became apparent
that there was nothing a 527 could do that a 501(c)(4), (c)(5), or (c)(6) could
not do, these self-styled reformers sought to regulate those organizations,
as well, but assured us that they would never seek to burden
501(c)(3)s. Now comes this proposal to regulate the 501(c)(3)s -- or at
least those who these would-be regulators deem too tainted by their interest in
"policy advocacy." If I were a 501(c)(3) -- from Harvard down to the
smallest local food bank concerned about its public funding -- I would be
very leery of this "solution" from Mr. Callahan.
John Pomeranz
Harmon, Curran, Spielberg &
Eisenberg, LLP
1726 M Street, NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC
20036
office: 202.328.3500
mobile: 703.597.7663
fax: 202.328.6918
e: jpomeranz@harmoncurran.com
"Bring Donors Out of the Shadows"
David Callahan has written this important
NYT oped.
Posted by Rick Hasen at
08:49 AM