Federal Greek Housing Bills.

[Tom Earp]

Federal Laws concerning Greeks.

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There has been over the past several years Legislation that has been proposed on worked on by a group of Greek Organizatins to get passed.

This concerns the donations by Alumni for the Fraternity at both the National and Local level to be tax deductable for not just educational purpose but for naything such as house improvements or building new houses.

This would be a total boon for Greeks in expansion, renovations and needed items such as fire supression systems.

I have taken this from what has been sent out by Alpha Gamma Delta who has been in the fore front working with a group including LXA in trying to get this passed.

Please read and do what you can!


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The Fraternity is seeking your assistance in participating in two efforts which will support the Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act (CHIA), legislation seeking support in the United States Congress.
• A national grassroots congressional letter writing campaign
• A congressional “Phone March” on Wednesday, March 21
Passage of this legislation will increase the ability of college fraternities and sororities to improve their student housing by redefining existing tax law to allow tax-deductible charitable contributions made to national or local 501(c)(3) organizations (such as the Alpha Gamma Delta Foundation) to be used at the chapter level for a broad range of purposes, including making safety and infrastructure improvements to our chapter houses. Information about the Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act may be found at the Fraternal Caucus website, www.fraternalcaucus.com.
Participating in either of these efforts is simple. To send a letter to your United States Senator or Representative, simply go to http://www.bipac.net/alert.asp?g=fc and follow the prompts.
To participate in the March 21 Phone March, go to the Alpha Gamma Delta website and click on the Greek Legislative Action link on the home page.
Thanks for your support of these efforts. Passage of CHIA would make a real difference in the future of Greek housing and Alpha Gamma Delta. It would open up a range of new possibilities for us to improve the experience we provide to our members. Your participation in the letter-writing campaign and / or the Phone March will increase the broad showing of support for it. There is some urgency to this request, as the Phone March is next Wednesday, March 21, and we want a large number of letters to be received in advance of the Greek visits to Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. on April 17. Alpha Gamma Delta will be represented during these visits by four members, two alumnae and two collegians. Your letters will make these visits to Capitol Hill more effective. We ask you to submit your letters by March 31.


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Your help is needed now!

[AGDLynn]

Although the official letter-writing and phone deadlines have passed, all support is greatly appreciated.

H.R. 643 is now at the Ways and Means Committee
S. 638 is now at the Finance Committee

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-643

[Tom Earp]

Originally Posted by AGDLynn

Although the official letter-writing and phone deadlines have passed, all support is greatly appreciated.

H.R. 643 is now at the Ways and Means Committee
S. 638 is now at the Finance Committee

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-643

AGDLynn, thanks for the update.

But as you said, it is never to late to contact your local Reps and Sen.

The games played in D. C. are never ending. Many times the more something is nudged the better it will be!

[KDAngel]

Originally Posted by Tom Earp

The games played in D. C. are never ending. Many times the more something is nudged the better it will be!

Oh how LOVE the games played up here. I mean I'd be out of a job without them.

But yeah, Congress has NO idea what their constituents want unless they're told. So definitely use the form on the fraternalcaucus site (to make things easy anyway) and send letters.

[PiKA2001]

Pi Kappa Alpha needs you!

On Wednesday, September 19, 2007, between 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. EST all Fraternities and Sororities are conducting a “Phone March” on Capitol Hill to bolster Congressional support for the Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act (H.R. 643/S. 638).

We need you to call your legislators and ask them to co-sponsor the Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act. Your call will show lawmakers how important this legislation is to their constituents and to the Greek community nationwide

Pi Kappa Alpha fully supports this legislation because it will help provide for much needed life safety enhancements in Pike houses. Please refer to www.fraternalcaucus.org for more detailed information on this legislation.

RIGHT NOW, while it’s on your mind, place a reminder in your calendar and in your PDA or phone. As well, spread the word to others, your Greek friends, parents of students currently in school, and university officials.

On September 19th follow these 4 easy steps!

STEP 1: Call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected with your U.S. Representative and both of your Senators. If you don’t know who they are, check these links first: www.house.gov and www.senate.gov.

STEP 2: When connected with the appropriate office, ask to speak with the staff member who handles tax issues. If that person is not available, ask to speak with the education staffer. If neither staff member is available, leave a voice mail or speak with the person answering the phone.

STEP 3: Below are some sample talking points for your calls:

SAMPLE TALKING POINTS:

• I live in your district/State and I am calling to ask your boss to become a co-sponsor of the Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act (H.R. 643 in the House or S. 638 in the Senate) and to push for its passage. I am also a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity.
• I am concerned that many not-for-profit student housing facilities, including fraternity and sorority housing, are unable to use certain charitable contributions to fund safety upgrades and other necessary infrastructure improvements.
• Rising enrollment is creating severe housing shortages on college campuses nationwide and not-for-profit housing is becoming more and more crucial to ensuring that students have access to safe and affordable housing options.
• Fraternities and sororities provide housing for over 250,000 students each year at no cost to the host institution, but much of this housing is in dire need of costly life safety upgrades and infrastructure improvements.
• Currently, tax-deductible contributions to fraternity and sorority foundations cannot be used for most infrastructure improvements to housing they own and operate, but contributions to colleges and universities can. The result is we lack the funding needed to make fire and life safety improvements or other improvements that would modernize our housing. This bill would eliminate this restriction and help fraternities and sororities, as well as other not-for-profit housing operations, to install modern life safety equipment, such as fire sprinklers, smoke detectors, and alarm systems.
• The bill has been endorsed by the American Council on Education (ACE) and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), two of the leading associations of higher education institutions.
STEP 4: Visit www.fraternalcaucus.org and click on “2007 Greek Phone March Contact Form.” Complete the form summarizing your conversations with Congressional offices so that our national Greek leaders can track your involvement and plan appropriate follow-up steps. While on the website, please register as a member under the “Get Involved” tab if you have not already done so.

Thanks for your support of this important legislation!

Fraternally,



Raymond L. Orians
Executive Vice President
Pi Kappa Alpha International Fraternity

[PiKA2001]

Originally Posted by KDAngel

Oh how LOVE the games played up here. I mean I'd be out of a job without them.

But yeah, Congress has NO idea what their constituents want unless they're told. So definitely use the form on the fraternalcaucus site (to make things easy anyway) and send letters.

Have you always been in DC??

[Tom Earp]

Remember, it is never to late to remind your Senators or Representatives about this very important situation for us as Greeks.

Please contact them!

[Titchou]

I called...got one live person who sounded very bored...in the other two offices I got the person's voice mail. One of them actually returned my call while i was out and said he would see that the senator was briefed on my call.

[Tom Earp]

Unfortunatly, this sounds like the letters I received after emailing them in and from my state and Hillary!

Congressional B S!

They need to be deluged with either calls or emails.

I know there is a lobbying group made up of a lot of GLO IHQs but they can always use help in the numbers department.

If we as Greeks do not push this, no one else will as we are all either rich kids or from rich familys.

[KDAngel]

I called. I called for my parents who are Greek too (I'm cool like that). Everyone was really receptive and either co-sponsors or willing to talk about it. I even went in to talk to one guy more in depth who's a LD for a Senator (I work/live here in DC) and he was really into it hearing about it, which was nice.

But it's NOT too late to call now. The offices clearly knew what was happening that day, because soon as I called and asked for the people, they were like "are you calling for that Greek housing thing."

Also, check and see if your university supports the bill as well. If you're not sure, you can call or email the caucus and they'll tell you. But you can probably just call your Greek life office and find out pretty quickly as well too. They love it up here when BIG groups like that sign on, because it represents so many constituents.

[Tom Earp]

Just to bumb and update this thread!

I have not forgotten and hope no one else does!

I still email my and other Reps/Sen to remind them!

But, as usual I get the BS note.

So, there needs to be more who keep contacting them to help each of us!

[JessicaSideways]

Looks like this bill got buried. That's too bad.

[dnall]

Bump...

This bill comes up every session & doesn't seem to make much progress. It's a complex issue of balancing greek beds against dorm beds - ie you can make a tax deductible donation to a university which can spend the money on a dorm, but you can't do so for a fraternity/sorority to do the same, not even if that's on property leased from the university.

In recent years there has been an effort to split off a part of the bill. Specifically it would allow donations for life/health/safety improvements. That's mostly aimed at installing fire sprinklers, but would also include general improvements that improve safety or ADA compliance. Still doesn't help building a house though, not even the portion of expense that would go to those type of issues.

The general consensus is this is something congress wants to do, but the timing is not great. It's possible to get it slipped into something as an amendment, but probably would not pass on its own. While there are lots of co-sponsors, no one seems to be extremely committed to the degree required to get a deal done.

We need to stay on them to keep this on their desk.

[PaddyMaxwell]

I would expect the best way to pass this initiative (yes, I know it is aged at this point), would be to strategically follow a bill that deals specifically with some College/University level funding that has a favorable probability of passage. Once this bill has been identified, a grassroots campaign must be enacted swiftly and without mercy; during which, letters, calls, and visits will need to be made to the elected officials both requesting attachment of this legislation, and urging the subsequent passage of the bill. Timing is everything in D.C.