Articles about nonprofit advocacy issues are:

• IRS Drops Investigations of United Church of Christ and First Southern Baptist

• Senate Report on Homegrown Terrorism and the Internet Generates Criticism

• Comments Blast Proposed Affiliation Rule for HIV/AIDS Grantees

President Bush has nominated a new nominee for the Federal Election Commission (FEC), as The Hill describes, "to jump-start negotiations with Senate Democrats." To replace Hans von Spakovsky Bush nominated Matthew Petersen, currently a Republican staffer on the Senate Rules and Administration Committee.

Meanwhile, after the Senate Rules Committee was unable to get a quorum on Wed. May 21 to vote on whether to approve three new FEC commissioners, the Committee successfully did so the following day. Hopefully these nominations will move to the Senate floor for confirmation soon.

After the committee's vote, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) issued comments in a press release stating; "This vote means the FEC is one step closer to restoring a working quorum. This vote comes not a moment too soon. It is unconscionable that in the middle of a presidential election year, with campaign committees spending millions of dollars, that we don't have our federal election watchdog in place."

Controversial Federal Election Commission (FEC) nominee Hans von Spakovsky withdrew his name from consideration, and now observers are more optimistic that the FEC will soon be up and running. Von Spakovsky's confirmation was problematic due to his positions on voting rights while in the Justice Department. Some Democrats blocked his nomination because of his work to suppress the voting rights of minorities and the elderly, such as by promoting voter ID requirements. Von Spakovsky's recess appointment expired at the end of last year without Senate confirmation. Senate Democrats continued to insist on a separate vote on von Spakovsky while Senate Republican leaders, pushed to have von Spakovsky approved along with the other FEC nominees as a single package.

In his letter of resignation, Spakovsky explains, "[t]his process has been extremely hard on my family and quite frankly, we do not have the financial resources to continue to wait until this matter is resolved."

The Washington Post quoted Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV); "His withdrawal today is a victory for our electoral process. With Mr. von Spakovsky now removed, I anticipate that we will be able to swiftly put a functioning FEC in place."

Millions of Americans, especially in rural and low-income urban areas don't have high speed Internet access. The Communications Workers of America (CWA) is running a public policy and awareness campaign, Speed Matters, advocating for a national high speed network. Last year OMB Watch helped spread the word about the Speed Matters project. Speed Matters used thousands of online speed tests from regular Americans across the country to develop a state-by-state report on Internet connection speed. In preparation for CWA's second annual speed test report this summer, they need as many people as possible to take the speed test. The report will be released around the time of the Democratic and Republican National Conventions to make sure high speed Internet access is on both parties' agendas.

In the 21st century with new Internet capabilities, civic participation is enhanced with advanced high capacity communications networks. With the Internet, Americans can get informed of important issues from their backyard, to across the world, and then act on those of importance to them. Not only do voters rely on the Internet, but the government relies on it to provide information and forms and those without access to such information are, in effect, penalized.

As CWA describes; "The emergence of a new communications system — one based on high speed interactive networks designed for voice, data, and video communications — opens up tremendous opportunities for improving the quality of our economic, civic, and personal lives. A true high speed digital network offers advantages far beyond increased entertainment choices; it will accelerate business development and innovations in telemedicine, interactive distance learning, and e-government."

Please take the speed test now. Or visit www.speedmatters.org for more information. And tell your friends and family about the speed test!

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC)'s authority could soon extend to regulate nonprofits. Senators Daniel Inouye (D-HI) and Byron Dorgan (D-ND) have introduced S.2831, the FTC Reauthorization Act of 2008. A Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee press release states the bill "expands the Commission's authority to regulate non-profits for unfair or deceptive acts or practices. Currently, some non-profits have used their tax-exempt status as a shield to block FTC enforcement action." The FTC proposal would expand the definition of "corporation" to include tax code Section 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) organizations.

BNA Money and Politics ($$) reports that Morey Ward, of counsel with Morgan Lewis & Bockius, said during a session on exempt organizations at the American Bar Association Section of Taxation meeting that "Under the current Federal Trade Commission Authorization Act, the definition of 'corporation' is not perfectly clear,' Ward said. 'They have been effective in going after charities in some limited instances but feel that they are hampered, and have been up on the Hill testifying that they really need to get into the areas of fraudulent charities, certainly, but possibly inefficient charities as well."