Bethphage Governmental Affairs
	Volume 3 · Issue 3—— May 1999

S.670/H.R.1194

For over a year and a half, Bethphage, in coalition with eight other national organizations, has been working for the passage of a bill that would amend the Internal Revenue Service Code Section 131. This very important bipartisan legislation addresses the way in which foster care families are taxed on the income they receive for providing services to children and adults with disabilities.

In 1998, during the 105^th Congress, we were successful in gaining support for the introduction of a bill in the House and the Senate which would have equalized the tax treatment for all foster care parents by making their payments non-taxable under the IRS Code. Unfortunately, there was no tax bill proposed in 1998 and, therefore, no vehicle to which to attach these bills.

In February 1999, during the early days of the 106^th Congress, Congressman Ron Lewis (R-KY) introduced the Adult Foster Care Tax Bill, H.R. 1194. The same week, Senator Jim Jeffords (R-VT) and Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT) introduced a duplicate bill on the Senate side, S.670. These bills have a chance of passing this year if we firmly and consistently work to recruit additional co-sponsors. Currently there are 23 co-sponsors in the House and only one on the Senate side.

Action Needed:

Even if your state or program is not currently providing adult foster care services (i.e., host homes, family living program, etc.), this option will most likely exist for all Bethphage programs in the future. We need your help to make sure this choice is available to the people we serve.

This is our opportunity to make a difference. Without sufficient support from the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee, these bills will not pass. Therefore, we are asking you to help us with three necessary strategies:

1. If your congressperson or senator is on the list of co-sponsors, please write or call to thank them for their support;
2. Recruit co-sponsors from the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee; and
3. Recruit non-Committee members from your home district.

We must use the time between now and July 31 to mount a "full court press" on this issue.

How you can help:

• Write, fax, call or e-mail your legislator to urge his/her co-sponsorship of this bill (handwritten letters are always the best!);
• share this information with your co-workers, friends, neighbors and family and ask them to do the same;
• organize a letter writing party to ensure an urgent and clear message is sent to your legislator in a compact period of time;
• call your legislator’s local office and make a personal visit to request your congressperson’s or senator’s support of this bill; and/or
• Make sure that our governmental affairs office is notified of your contacts, along with any information you might share about congressional response. The governmental affairs staff can do additional follow up if we know with whom you have been in contact.

Our Message:

In all communications, our message is quite simple … ask your Representative or Senator to sign on and co-sponsor either H.R. 1194 or S.670. Tell them that these bills will make it easier for the recruitment and retention of foster care families by equalizing the tax treatment of their income. Let them know that it is our opinion that it is unfair for parents who work with organizations like Bethphage to be required to pay taxes on their income when families who work with the state or a political subdivision of the state do not have to pay taxes.

To help you write your letters, we have included a set of talking points with this Alert which further details our position on these bills.

A list of names, addresses, phone/fax numbers and e-mail information is included on Bethphage’s web site at http://www.bethphage.org/govaff/congress/congress.html. Or, you can call Sharon Walters at 1-800-279-1234, Ext. 3329 for the information.

Conclusion:

Please include in each of your letters or contacts a suggestion that a member of Bethphage’s staff (Rich Carman or Sharon Walters) will be making a personal contact to follow up with the congressman/woman or senator to further discuss these bills. Please let us know who was contacted – you can write, call, fax or e-mail us using the information at the bottom of the newsletter.

Listed below are the senators and congressmen/women who have already agreed to co-sponsor this very important bipartisan legislation.

Senate:
Sen. Jim Jeffords (R-VT) - Sponsor
Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT)

House:
Rep. Ron Lewis (R-KY) - Sponsor
Rep. Jim Nussle (R-IA)
Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-OH)
Rep. Lee Terry (R-NE)
Rep. Patsy Mink (D-HI)
Rep. Ronnie Shows (D-MS)
Rep. J. D. Hayworth (R-AZ)
Rep. Doug Bereuter (R-NE)
Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA)
Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC)
Rep. Jim Ramstad (R-MN)
Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN)
Rep. Jim McCrery (R-LA)
Rep. Joel Hefley (R-CO)
Rep. Matthew Martinez (D-CA)
Rep. Bob Schaffer (R-CO)
Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ)
Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX)
Rep. Anne Northup (R-KY)
Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA)
Rep. Scott McInnis (R-CO)
Rep. Tom Bliley (R-VA)
Rep. Bill Barrett (R-NE)
Rep. Constance Morella (R-MD)

The Advocacy Committee of the Board of Directors met in Washington on February 22-24, 1999. The new members of the Committee received some instruction on how to make Hill visits and had a lot of on-the-job training!

The group, which consisted of (from left to right) Sharon Walters, Rev. Sherman Hicks (Chair), Linda Aaker, Martha Schmidt, Diana McCalment, Milly Engberg and Rich Carman, made over 20 visits and were able to obtain support for both the Work Incentives Act of 1999 and the Adult Foster Care bill.

At the meeting, a lifetime achievement award was presented to Joni Fritz, Executive Director of the American Network of Community Options and Resources (ANCOR), Bethphage’s national trade association. Joni will be retiring from ANCOR at the end of this year. All of us at Bethphage wish Joni well and thank her for a lifetime of commitment to people with disabilities.

We have been making a lot of progress with our outreach in Latvia. In February, Linda Aaker, Board Director for Bethphage Great Britain, and Rich Carman, Vice President for Govern-mental Affairs (also, president and CEO of Bethphage Fund Latvia – our non-governmental organization – NGO) visited Latvia with the purpose of making contacts with Latvian officials to discuss the possibilities of future grant opportunities. Karina Kaktina, the executive director of Bethphage in Latvia, has written a wonderful article for the next issue of The Messenger. Please take a few minutes to read it when your copy arrives in the mail.

Richard Carman
Vice President for Governmental Affairs
Bethphage
700 Plaza Middlesex
Middletown, CT 06457
Phone: (860) 343-8542
Fax: (860) 343-8545
e-mail: rcarman@bethphage.org

Sharon Walters
Legislative Coordinator
Bethphage
4980 South 118 Street, Suite A
Omaha, NE 68137
Phone: (402) 896-3884, Ext. 3329
(800) 279-1234, Ext. 3329
Fax: (402) 896-1511
e-mail: swalters@bethphage.org

ADULT FOSTER CARE BILL

S.670 & H.R. 1194

"Talking Points"

History

During the 105^th Congress, Senator Jeffords (R-VT) and Congressman Bunning (R-KY) introduced the Adult Foster Care Bill. The intent of the legislation was to simplify the tax treatment for families who provide foster care for individuals with disabilities, regardless of the age of the person or the entity making the foster care placement. Since there was no comprehensive tax bill during the 105^th Congress, this and several other amendments to the tax bill were not acted upon.

106^th Congress

In March 1999, Senator Jeffords (R-VT) introduced S.670, and Congressman Lewis (R-KY) introduced H.R. 1194, the new Adult Foster Care Bills. The intent of these identical bills is the same as that of the bills introduced during the 105^th Congress -- simplify and level the playing field for the tax treatment of payments made to foster care families. H.R. 1194 was introduced with 21 original co-sponsors.

Please urge your member of Congress to help us simplify the current tax code by:

• Eliminating the differences in the tax treatment of the payments received by the foster care providers when placements are made by non-governmental agencies, yet funded by state entities
• Allowing providers of foster care to avoid the difficult task of extensive record keeping
• Ensuring appropriate oversight of the placement agencies regarding licensure or contracts
• Helping recruit and retain qualified foster care providers
• Offering an alternative cost-effective alternative method of care
• Eliminating the age restrictions governing the tax treatment
• Being retroactive to December 31, 1998

Placement Agency	Payor	Age of Foster Care Individual	Payment Excludable?
State or political subdivision	State or political subdivision	< 19 years	Yes
State or political subdivision	State or political subdivision	³ 19 years	Yes
State or political subdivision	Licensed 501(c)(3)	< 19 years	Yes
State or political subdivision	Licensed 501(c)(3)	³ 19 years	No
State or political subdivision	Not 501(c)(3)	< 19 years	No
State or political subdivision	Not 501(c)(3)	³ 19 years	No
Licensed 501(c)(3)	State or political subdivision	< 19 years	Yes
Licensed 501(c)(3)	State or political subdivision	³ 19 years	No
Licensed 501(c)(3)	501(c)(3)	< 19 years	Yes
Licensed 501(c)(3)	501(c)(3)	³ 19 years	No
Licensed 501(c)(3)	Not 501(c)(3)	< 19 years	No
Licensed 501(c)(3)	Not 501(c)(3)	³ 19 years	No
Not 501(c)(3)	State or political subdivision	< 19 years	No
Not 501(c)(3)	State or political subdivision	³ 19 years	No
Not 501(c)(3)	501(c)(3)	< 19 years	No
Not 501(c)(3)	501(c)(3)	³ 19 years	No
Not 501(c)(3)	Not 501(c)(3)	< 19 years	No
Not 501(c)(3)	Not 501(c)(3)	³ 19 years	No