The House has passed a bill today that would strip pensions from any member of Congress "who is convicted of any of certain offenses committed by that individual while serving as a member of Congress, and for other purposes." No one voted against HR 476, especially after the scandals of the previous Congress. A similar measure is included in the Senate ethics and lobbying reform bill that passed late last week. According to CQ($$), such crimes include the conviction of certain felonies, including bribery, defrauding the government and perjury involving "falsely denying commission of an act." Pensions would also be denied to members found to have coerced others to lie on their behalf. "The bill, however, will not be retroactive, meaning that some former members — including Bob Ney, R-Ohio, who was recently sentenced to 30 months on bribery related charges — will still be eligible for their pensions."

According to BNA Money and Politics ($$), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will post on its website instructions for the 2006 Form 990 used by exempt organizations to report their revenues. Many are expecting changes to the reporting requirements in the 2005 form, "which asked not only for the names of highly paid individuals and their relationship to the charity and other organizations but the amounts paid to each individual by the related organization." The IRS is also actively investigating charities that make contributions to political organizations, and has sent examination letters to 79 churches and 179 non-church charities. The IRS has reasons to believe these groups made direct contributions to political organizations. IRS's Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division is expected to have a report on the program this spring.

In addition, IRS is stepping into new territory by looking at how many clicks away from a charitable organization a political Web site is. "Is it one link or five links?" he [Marvin Friedlander, chief of exempt organizations rulings and agreements] asked. "We have a couple of cases that present that issue to us, as to whether a 501(c)(3) is engaged in political intervention depending on what other sites it is linking to."

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced that it has launched a new website offering tax-exempt organizations free online training workshops covering tax compliance issues geared towards small and mid-sized exempt organizations. The website, "Stay Exempt - Tax Basics for 501(c)(3)s," has five interactive tutorials. These topics include keeping your tax-exempt status, employment issues, unrelated business income, form 990, and required disclosures.

BNA Money and Politics (subscription required) reported that on January 12 a federal appeals court ruled that the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) did not have the needed legal standing to sue the Federal Election Commission (FEC). The FEC found that Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) improperly provided a contact list to the President Bush's re-election campaign. CREW then filed an enforcement complaint against the FEC, arguing that the list was worth more than the FEC considered. "CREW attorney Anne Weisman told a three-judge panel during the appellate argument in October that her organization has a right to know more about an in-kind contribution made by ATR to Bush's 2004 campaign in the form of a list of key contacts." What is in consideration is the case of an outside entity indirectly involved challenging the FEC, and the ruling that this independent nonprofit does not have standing to sue.

While still debating and crafting amendments to S.1, some lawmakers are trying to use the opportunity to attach campaign finance issues to the ethics and lobbying bill. However, Democratic leaders have decided in order to pass the strongest bill as quickly as possible, campaign finance matters must be delayed. One such attempt was Senator Feingold's introduction of S.223, for mandatory electronic campaign filing. Despite being a necessary and seemingly uncontroversial item, it remains to be ungermane. Hopefully, if not included as an amendement to the ethics bill, it will be dealt with again soon. This DailyKos blog is rallying support for the provision. Meanwhile, Senator Vitter introduced two campaign finance amendments, both voted down. From BNA Money and Politics (subscription required):

Later, the Senate voted to table, or kill, amendments offered by Vitter to restrict campaign contributions from Indian tribes and to prohibit a lawmaker's family members from being employed by the lawmaker's "leadership" political action committee. Little substantive debate occurred on the measures. Feinstein said she would opposed the measures simply to keep "extraneous matters" from burdening legislation aimed at dealing with lobbying and ethics rules.