Nonprofit Leaders Praise New Charity Legislation

Nonprofit leaders and experts gathered on Capitol Hill today to praise newly unveiled legislation that aims to raise the profile of the charitable world in Washington.

"We have a government that counts iceberg-lettuce heads and can tell us how many iceberg-lettuce heads were put on the ground last year," Tim Delaney, president of the National Council of Nonprofits, said at a press conference. "Yet it cannot tell us how many heads of individuals were employed by nonprofits. Why are iceberg-lettuce heads more valuable than the people who take care of America's communities?"

The new bill, the Nonprofit Sector and Community Solutions Act, H.R. 5533, was introduced Tuesday evening by Rep. Betty McCollum, Democrat of Minnesota. It would create two new governing bodies to make recommendations about federal policy affecting charities and require federal agencies to step up their collection of data about such organizations.