Federal Charity Drive Explains How Controversial Rule Works

Under pressure to clarify controversial rules governing solicitations of government workers, federal officials have issued new guidelines to nonprofit organizations that participate in the Combined Federal Campaign, the federal government’s annual charity drive.

The guidelines come in response to rules put in place this fall requiring the more than 10,000 nonprofit groups that participate in the federal charity drive to certify that they do not knowingly employ people whose names appear on several terrorist watch lists put out by the government.

Many nonprofit organizations had complained that the requirements were confusing and had become an administrative burden, while some groups have dropped out of the campaign after refusing to check terrorist watch lists that they said include people who have not been charged with a crime or given a chance to respond to the allegations.

Last month, 13 nonprofit organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International, sued the federal government to get the rules rescinded.

The civil-liberties group and others charged that the government requirements are prohibited by federal statute and are unconstitutional. In the new guidelines, the federal government defends its right to require charities to check watch lists.

Check Two Lists

The new guidelines issued by the Office of Personnel Management, the federal government’s human-resources agency, say that charities participating in the federal drive must check two terrorist watch lists once a year to make sure that none of their employees or groups with which they work are on the lists. The lists are the Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nationals List, which is 170 pages long and includes thousands of names, and the State Department’s Terrorist Exclusion List, which names about 60 alleged terrorist groups.

The guidelines also state that charities participating in the federal drive are required to check only the names of their current full-time and part-time employees against terrorist watch lists. Groups are not required to check the names of their volunteers or businesses from which they purchase or lease goods and services, such as office space or utilities.

Several nonprofit leaders said that while the new guidelines clarified some problems they had with the rules, they left unresolved deeper concerns about whether charities should be monitoring watch lists.

“Requiring charities to check watch lists is fundamentally beyond an administrative burden,” said Rick Cohen, executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, a nonprofit advocacy group in Washington. “The government is still requiring nonprofit groups to carry out activities that are beyond their mandate and substituting nonprofit action for government action.”

Diana Aviv, president of Independent Sector, a coalition of more than 600 charities and foundations, called the latest government action an “encouraging sign” that if government wants to put administrative demands on nonprofit organizations, those demands should be specifically defined.

But she questions whether nonprofit groups should support a policy that does not assure due process for the people and groups put on watch lists.

In a statement, the civil-liberties union said that the government’s clarification “still leaves unresolved the ultimate effectiveness of watchlist policies.” The group said it plans to continue to pursue its litigation.

The guidelines are available at http://www.opm.gov/cfc/opmmemos/2004/2004-12.asp.