WASHINGTON - January 30 - The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) today decries the exclusion of Abramoff-type abuse of foundations and nonprofits from the gamut of lobbying reform legislation being debated on Capitol Hill.

"These legislative efforts ignore largely untraceable loopholes, which if neglected in this round of lobbying reform, would leave the charitable sector, Congress, and K Street ripe for more abuse and illegal behavior," said Rick Cohen, executive director of NCRP. "The Abramoff affair should be a clarion call to prevent politicians, their campaign staff, and their K Street cronies from cloaking dirty dealings behind charity and philanthropy," he continued.

The political abuse of charities’ tax-exempt status erodes the public’s trust in government as well as in the charitable sector, two entities that have been charged to be fiscally responsible and straightforward with public dollars. NCRP urges Congress to ensure that comprehensive lobbying reform includes regulation and disclosure of lobbyists’ and politicians’ charitable activities. Immediate steps must be taken to expose the political misuse of foundations, to improve the ethical workings of the lawmaking process and restore trust in Congress, and to prevent future abuse and mitigate the growing public distrust of the nation’s nonprofit sector.

Based on NCRP’s monitoring of the Abramoff case (and others), we call on lawmakers to incorporate into any and all legislation that deals with lobbying reform the following:

• Full disclosure of donors and grants. Any foundation or charity established by or connected to members of Congress should be required to disclose the source of its donations as well as a detailed account of expenditures. Under federal law, the names of donors to charities are protected from the public, but that rule should not apply to tax-exempt groups founded by or affiliated with lawmakers. Members of the House and Senate, even after leaving public office, make and influence policy decisions that affect every citizen; therefore, the public has a right to know fully the interactions of politicians with lobbyists, especially under the cover of nonprofits.

• Tighter ethics rules to govern lawmakers. The growth in the number of charities that operate as political fronts stems from the 2003 repeal of a rule that barred House of Representatives members from accepting reimbursement for travel and lodging expenses in connection with charity events. Under the current standards, lawmakers and their families can participate in charity fundraising events without disclosing how much money they or their charity receive. These standards allow for lobbyists to buy face time and access to these lawmakers.

• Increased dollars for Internal Revenue Service oversight and enforcement. Many nonprofit leaders have urged state and federal governments to step up enforcement of tax-exempt law, but too few have done anything to press for more money to be channeled to regulators. Now more than ever, the foundation excise tax needs to be used for its original purpose: funding government oversight of the tax-exempt sector.

• Better disclosure of financial transactions and donor records among different types of nonprofit organizations (c3s, c4s, 527s).

Cohen’s article in Responsive Philanthropy’s Fall 2004 issue, "Abramoff: Well- Connected to the Well-Heeled of the Right," was one of the first to bring to light to Jack Abramoff’s abuse of his Capital Athletic Foundation as a tool to funnel money from various interest groups, including Native American tribes, to himself, his colleagues and business partners, and prominently ranked lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

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