The IRS’s admission that it targeted groups with conservative sounding names for scrutiny will no doubt be held up by some as “proof” that the agency can’t be trusted with determining whether organizations claiming to be “social welfare” organizations are actually political organizations in disguise. In fact, just the opposite is true. The agency needs to apply clear and unequivocally neutral rules to its determinations about whether a group is in fact a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization, entitled to tax exempt status but not required to disclose its donors, or whether it is a political organization, also entitled to tax exempt status but not allowed to keep its donors secret. Using a shortcut, like whether a group had the word “tea party” or “patriot” in its name to aid in making that determination is dead wrong for an agency that must be scrupulously nonpartisan.
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Continue readingSenators Wyden and Murkowski Introduce Dark Money Disclosure Bill
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Continue readingCFTC’s Credit Swap Reporting Requirements Result in Chaos
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Continue readingSome in Congress not So Keen on Disclosing Corporate Political Spending
Last week, freshman Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., introduced the Focusing the SEC on Its Mission Act (H.R. 1626). If passed,... View Article
Continue readingSTOCK Act Strikeout Visualized
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Continue readingOppose Government Waste and Support Government Accountability in a Single Bill
As of midnight last night, candidates for federal office were to have filed their campaign finance disclosure reports with the... View Article
Continue readingAfter TCamp, Become an Advocate for Open Government
The Sunlight Foundation’s sister organization, the Sunlight Network, is organizing Citizen Advocacy Day, an exciting opportunity for citizens to let... View Article
Continue readingEpic Failure by the Senate on Transparency Provisions in STOCK Act
With little fanfare and even less disclosure, the Senate late yesterday passed a bill that will, if signed into law,... View Article
Continue readingObama Pushes Senate E-Filing in Proposed Budget
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