Congress’s Charity Cases

Op-Ed Contributor

By FRANCES R. HILL
New York Times

A REPORT issued last week by the minority staff of the Senate Finance Committee details how the fallen lobbyist Jack Abramoff exploited tax-exempt organizations — both sham nonprofits and otherwise legitimate charities — to move money from clients he disdained to congressmen he hoped to influence.

Why were charities Mr. Abramoff’s go-to vehicles as he sought to transfer funds covertly through Washington’s corridors of power? The primary attraction was their opacity: their ability to raise money in any amount, without limit, from any individual or entity anywhere in the world without disclosing the contributors to anyone.

This makes good sense for honest charities helping people in need. But Mr. Abramoff took advantage of this situation to circumvent campaign finance laws and Congressional ethics rules and provide illicit benefits to powerful politicians.

Though members of Congress are subject to strict rules regarding gifts, travel and entertainment, there have long been exceptions for “value received from charity” — ostensibly to permit officials to help charities raise money for worthy causes.

So the tax-exempt treasuries of willing nonprofits like Americans for Tax Reform, run by the Republican strategist Grover Norquist, became conduits through which funds from lobbyists like Mr. Abramoff and other special interests were transferred to elected officials, their families and their aides in the form of lavish travel, expensive meals, golf outings and tickets to sports and entertainment events.

The rules that govern charitable giving obscured the true source of these gifts, while at the same time affording lobbyists private access to the congressmen they were trying to influence.

(The rest is here.)