Congress Returns to Long To-Do List

September 11, 2012 -Congress returns after a five-week recess to confront a growing list of must-pass legislation that - by most accounts - will be postponed until after the November 6 elections. The one exception for the coming weeks is an agreement to pass a stopgap spending bill to keep the government running through March. House action on the measure is scheduled for September 13. Left undone until a post-election “lame duck” session are such issues as:

• the expiring Bush-era tax cuts and estate tax;
• enactment of targeted spending cuts of more than $100 billion that will avoid automatic, mostly across-the-board cuts approved last year;
• extension of tax incentives, such as the IRA charitable rollover;
• and the Farm Bill that funds the food stamp program.

Reprinted with permission from Nonprofit Advocacy Matters, a publication of the National Council of Nonprofits, your national network.