On Wednesday, April 9, from 2-3 pm, join the Children’s Defense Fund for a rally to remind Congress how to really Leave No Child Behind. The rally will be held in the Upper Senate Park (at the corner of Louisiana and New Jersey Avenues, NW). Register for the event by calling 202-662-3582. Later that night, at 7 pm, CDF will hold a Presidential Candidates Forum in Washington, DC. The candidates include all the Democratic challengers and the forum will be moderated by CNN’s Judy Woodruff. No more tickets for this forum are available.

Get Important News and Announcements Via EMail (04/07/2003)

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Virginia Senate Preserves State Estate Tax (04/07/2003)
In an April 3 victory both for proponents of preservation of a fair estate tax and for the cash-strapped state of Virginia, itself, the Virginia Senate fell 2 votes short of the 27 it needed to override Gov. Mark Warner’s (D) veto of repeal of the state’s estate tax. The state is currently facing a deficit of at least $1.1 billion for FY 2004, which starts on July 1, 2003. According to reports by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, in response, Virginia -- and many other states facing a similar crisis -- has made plans to cut funding for correctional facilities, laid off state employees, and raised tuition at state-funded universities.

Dynamic Disappointment (04/07/2003)
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released the final version of its March 7 report, entitled “An Analysis of the President’s Budgetary Proposals for Fiscal Year 2004.” The revised version of this report was eagerly awaited for its special section on the “Potential Macroeconomic Effects of the President’s Budgetary Proposals.” A macroeconomic – or “dynamic” – evaluation has never been offered by CBO, and both proponents and critics of the controversial scoring method were anxious to learn what the CBO report would reveal. For many, it seems that the long-awaited results were disappointing in their ambiguity.

Status of FY 2004 Budget Resolution -- Still Time to Stop Huge Tax Cuts, Spending Cuts (04/07/2003)
As discussed in newspapers across the country, support for preserving the President's costly $726 billion tax cut package (misnamed the "Growth Package") is weakening. On March 25, the Senate voted to shrink the $726 billion package down to $350 billion. (In an earlier vote, the House passed the full $726 billion tax cut - and more than $260 billion in cuts to veterans' assistance, Medicaid, Medicare, food stamps and other programs - in a very close vote, 215-212.)

CARE Act Gets Agreement for Senate Floor Action This Week (04/07/2003)
After Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) agreed to drop the “equal treatment” portion of the Charity Aid Recovery and Empowerment (CARE) Act aimed at making it easier for religious organizations to get government grants, the path was cleared for the remainder of the bill (S. 476) to proceed to the Senate floor. S. 476 deals primarily with tax incentives for charitable giving and nonprofit accountability issues and was approved by the Finance Committee in February. However, controversy over the faith-based version sponsored by Santorum and Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT) was holding up the bill.

Faith-Based Grant Rules Debate Shifts to House (04/07/2003)
Now that the Senate has agreed to proceed with the CARE Act without the "equal treatment" provisions addressing government grant rules for faith-based charities, the House of Representatives is currently taking up the issue in bills addressing national service and job training. Both houses are expected to consider these issues in depth when welfare reform programs are reauthorized later this year.

Anti Nonprofit Advocacy Provisions Dropped from Bill (04/07/2003)
On April 2, 2003, the House Subcommittee on Education Reform adopted a substitute for H.R. 1350, the Improving Education Results for Children with Disabilities Act of 2003. Chairman Michael Castle (R-DE), the bill's sponsor, dropped provisions that would have severely limited the ability of nonprofit parent centers that receive grants under the bill to communicate with the federal government.

Supreme Court Upholds Funding Source for Low Income Legal Services (04/07/2003)
On March 26, in a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court upheld the legality of funding legal services for the needy by using “Interest on Lawyer Trust Accounts” (IOLTA), the short-term interest earned on escrow accounts that are used by lawyers to pool clients’ funds for real estate transactions.

EPA: Friend to Seniors? (04/07/2003)
Publicly, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has expressed great interest in protecting the elderly, recently launching an “Aging Initiative” to examine their particular vulnerability to environmental health hazards. Yet behind the scenes, the agency is employing analytical methods that systematically devalue the lives of seniors in setting environmental standards, making strong protections much less likely.

Court Orders OSHA to Take Action on Dangerous Lung Carcinogen (04/07/2003)
A U.S. appeals court recently ordered the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to issue a new standard for workplace exposure to hexavalent chromium, a dangerous lung carcinogen used in chrome plating, stainless steel welding, and the production of chromate pigments and dyes.

Stealthy Officials Raid Libraries of Emergency Plans (04/07/2003)
It's now a lot harder for people in Ohio to know whether their communities are prepared for chemical emergencies, thanks to local officials who unilaterally removed documents from libraries without the librarians' prior knowledge or public comment.

Senator Graham Speaks Out Against Secrecy (04/07/2003)

During a recent statement in memory of former senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL) spoke out against government actions around secrecy during a floor statement. Moynihan had been a strong opponent of government secrecy through out his 24 years as a U.S. Senator from New York. Graham proposed that a fitting tribute to Moynihan would be a "heightened recognition of the damage that excessive secrecy exacts on our government's credibility, and to recommit ourselves to a government which trusts its people to know the truth." Recently signed Executive Order 12,958 was singled out during the comments as an example of the current administration’s abuse of secrecy. The order allows for delays in the release of classified documents that were over 25 years old and would have been automatically declassified on April 17. Graham made note the irony of the Executive Order, which was signed on the eve of Moynihan’s death.

Chemical Security Re-Emerges in Senate (04/07/2003)
During the last session of Congress, Sen. Jon Corzine (D-NJ) made a tremendous effort to move a Chemical Security Bill that would require chemical plants to assess their vulnerabilities and take steps to reduce the risk they pose to surrounding communities. Unfortunately, due largely to efforts by the chemical industry to oppose the bill, Corzine’s bill was blocked from ever being considered by the full Senate.

Government Accidentally Does Its Job (04/07/2003)
An alert from the new Department of Homeland Security warned that Chinese hackers were planning to attack U.S. and U.K. websites in an effort to protest the war in Iraq. The alert warned that the main plan was to render Web sites and networks unusable by flooding them with massive amounts of traffic. According to the alert, the hackers also planned to deface selected Web sites. The Department of Homeland Security sent the alert to government and industry officials to allow them to make preparations. The alert was also posted on the homepage of the National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC), to allow the public to also prepare for possible loss of service or data that might result from a cyber attack. However, the public warning was unintentional and the alert was pulled shortly after being posted.

Virginia Governor Signs Bills Increasing Secrecy Measures (04/07/2003)
On recommendation of the Secure Virginia Panel, Virginia Governor Mark R. Warner (D) recently signed several bills into law that are part of a state effort to strengthen security measures and prevent domestic terrorism. Two of the bills, the Sensitive Records Protection Act and its companion bill, the Freedom of Information Act Critical Infrastructure and Vulnerability Assessments, are aimed at facilitating communication between the private sector and state agencies in order to prevent threats to critical assets. Under the guise of increasing communication about vulnerabilities, these bills actually promote secrecy and inhibit information sharing, preventing the public from accessing information which could protect them.

Montana Drops Terrorism Security Bill (04/07/2003)
Montana Governor Judy Martz (R) and leading state lawmakers recently abandoned a state bill which would have given the government authority to withhold any information from the pubic that it deemed “sensitive.” State Senator Walt McNutt (R-Sidney) stated that Senate Bill 142, which was crafted in order to protect public works from terrorist attacks, is being dropped because the legislation would have created an atmosphere of too much secrecy. The Senator explained that the legislation would have made it possible for agencies to abuse their privilege and withhold a great deal of information.