The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Exempt Organizations is offering a workshop in three cities for small and mid-sized 501(c)(3) exempt organizations to explain how they keep their tax-exempt status and comply with tax obligations.

Now that the comment period for the draft Form 990 is closed, the IRS has posted all comments on its website, including the comments submitted by OMB Watch (Comments September 14, Part III.)

The Hill reports that Senator John Ensign (R-NV) is holding firm in stalling S.223, insisting that there is first a vote on an amendment that would force groups that file ethics complaints to disclose their donors.

TPMMuckraker.com has a clear explanation of events. "His bill would require all non-profits that file ethics complaints against senators to disclose all donors who gave $5,000 or more. His bill, he said on the floor, was designed to 'protect individual Senators from purely politically motivated ethics complaints that come against us that sometimes we will have to run up legal bills and all kinds of other things.' Without any evident irony he added: 'transparency is the best way to do it.'"

However, if Ensign is very concerned about disclosing the contributors to nonprofits that run politically motivated ethics complaints perhaps, he should not have voted to remove the grassroots lobbying disclosure provision from S.1 in January.

The Senate Rules Committee sent the nominations of four Federal Election Commission (FEC) commissioners to the full Senate floor, but did so without a recommendation to approve or reject the nominees after Rules Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) expressed concern that nominee Hans von Spakovsky was "not an unbiased individual." Von Spakovsky's confirmation hearing, in June focused on his time at the Justice Department. He has been accused of politicizing the department's voting rights section causing civil rights groups and many others to vigorously oppose his confirmation.

The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights sent a letter to Feinstein last week strongly urging against his confirmation. The letter stated; "Mr. von Spakovsky is one of the architects of the Bush Administration's voter suppression efforts targeting minority voters. From 2001 to 2005, as an official at the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, von Spakovsky helped steer the federal government toward voting rights policies not seen before, imposing sweeping restrictions that would make it harder for poor and minority voters to cast ballots."

Read the story covered by The Hill, Washington Post, and Roll Call($$) among many others.

Legislation to require Senate campaign finance reports to be filed electronically (S.223) was blocked once again on Monday. It was Senator Dianne Feinstein's (D-CA) third attempt this year to bring up the Senate campaign electronic filing measure by unanimous consent. Currently, House and presidential candidates, PACs and party committees are required to file their reports electronically, but Senate candidates and party committees are exempt. Senator John Ensign (R-NV) said he blocked the bill because he wanted to add an amendment which would require groups that file complaints with the Senate Ethics Committee to reveal their donors.

According to the Sunlight Foundation Democratic offices were given a Unanimous Consent agreement from Senator Mitch McConnell's (R-KY) office that would have allowed the Senate to move the bill only if they agreed to take up a an amendment identical to the one introduced on Monday by Senator John Ensign.

And according to BNA ($$) Money and Politics, Russ Feingold (D-WI) said that the Senator who placed the hold was revealed thanks to the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, which requires the disclosure of senators who place holds on Senate action.

Today the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight held a hearing to consider whether charitable organizations serve the needs of diverse communities. Click here for a witness list and testimony.

On Sept. 14, OMB Watch submitted comments to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on the proposed revisions of Form 990, the required tax filing form for nonprofit organizations. Our concerns address sections that relate to civic participation through nonprofit organizations, primarily Schedule C, on political campaign and lobbying activities. OMB Watch raised a number of concerns about the revisions and offered suggestions on how to improve the form. Read coverage of OMB Watch comments in BNA Money and Politics ($$), "OMB Watch Says Service Should Drop Some Form 990 Lobbying Expense Reporting."

The Senate amended the State-Foreign Operations bill (HR 2764) to overturn existing policy, known as the "Mexico City" policy banning international aid for overseas groups that perform abortions or related services such as counseling. The underlying bill would have weakened the existing "Mexico City" policy by allowing the U.S. to provide condoms to organizations overseas, but the amendment passed with a 53-41 vote overturning the policy altogether. According to CQ ($$), in defense of the amendment Senator Boxer (D-CA) said, "You have to choose between helping the people in your country — by speaking out, by offering counseling — or American dollars."