Don Nickles: “I compliment both my colleagues from Iowa and Montana for bringing up this bill. Amendment No. 527 (Purpose: To exclude…”

“I compliment both my colleagues from Iowa and Montana for bringing up this bill. Amendment No. 527 (Purpose: To exclude 25 percent of gain on sales or exchanges of land or water interests to any nonprofit entity for any charitable purpose) Madam President, this bill has a lot of good provisions in it. It has two provisions of which I question the value. I decided to do one amendment. One of the ones I question is, how much good does the above-line deduction do? If you are an individual, you have to donate $500, and you get a $250 deduction. So if you are in the 25-percent tax bracket, that means you get to save $62. And we add a lot of complexity to the Tax Code in the process. So I question the value of that. There are several other provisions in the bill that are good-- donations from IRAs to charities. The purpose of the bill is to increase donations to charities. I compliment the thrust of that. I compliment the President for trying to enact it. I am disappointed this bill does not do more for allowing charitable and/or religious groups to be eligible to participate in Federal programs. That is not in the bill. I am not faulting anybody. I compliment Senator Santorum because he worked tirelessly to get this bill forward. And I, as a legislator, am willing to take half a loaf. I think the Senator from Pennsylvania has about half of his original bill. I compliment him. He has been tenacious.”