IMPORTANT LEGISLATIVE ANNOUNCEMENT
Re: Letter Writing Campaign in Support of Pro-Fraternity Federal Legislation:
Tax Deductibility for Contributions to Chapter Housing
We are asking you to take a few minutes of your time and simply draft three letters to Congress in support of H.R. 1523. Sigma Phi Epsilon has joined a grassroots campaign of letter writing by all fraternities and sororities in support of H.R. 1523, the Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act of 2003.
H.R. 1523 would redefine existing tax law to allow for tax-deductible charitable contributions to be made to local or national 501(c)(3) organizations (such as the Sigma Phi Epsilon Educational Foundation), and for those contributions to then be used at the chapter level for a broad range of purposes, including making safety and infrastructure improvements to our chapter houses. Current tax law greatly restricts our current ability to use tax-deductible charitable contributions, and prevents these funds from being used for most housing and infrastructure improvements, even though our host institutions can use their tax-deductible charitable contributions to make similar infrastructure improvements for the benefit of students. We believe that if H.R. 1523 becomes law, we will have a tool for raising funds to make our housing and overall experience safer and more attractive to future generations of membership.
H.R. 1523 already has more than 30 co-sponsors (both Democrats and Republicans, Greeks and non-Greeks), but we need your support to help pass this bill. We are just one of 100 national fraternities and sororities that will be writing Congress in support of the bill.
At the bottom of this page is a Microsoft Word document that is a sample letter to use as a model in writing your letters. There are places in the sample letter for you to insert the proper name and fax number of the Member of Congress you are writing. Please be sure to personalize this information before sending the letter – the letter is not ready to be sent or faxed "as is". We encourage you to use your own stationary using your current or former title in drafting these letters for submission.
Also included are two Microsoft Excel spread sheets, one which shows all 403 Members of Congress who are not yet sponsors of H.R. 1523 and another spread sheet shows just the 34 members of the Ways and Means Committee who are not yet sponsors of H.R. 1523. Both spread sheets include the names, addresses, and fax numbers along with the colleges and universities located within their Congressional Districts.
Please follow these simple directions in writing your three letters:
1. Use the Excel spread sheets to determine the Names and Fax numbers of the Members of Congress you will be writing:
Your Hometown Congressman
The Congressman who resides in the district where your university alma mater is located
The Congressman on the Ways and means Committee Spread Sheet that resides in the district where your university alma matter is located or is nearest to your alma mater
As well, you can search for these names by zip code at:
www.house.gov
2. Use the SAMPLE LETTER for all three Congressmen by inserting their name and fax number on your letter.
3. FAX THESE LETTERS TO YOUR RESPECTIVE CONGRESSMAN AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
4. Fax a copy of the letters you wrote to the SigEp Headquarters at (804) 359-8160.
(You may also send an electronic message to Congressional representatives. For information go to
www.house.gov/writerep. Please send staff member Erin Mullally -
erin.mullally@sigep.net - a copy of your correspondence.)
As well and possibly more important, if you have a personal relationship with a Member of the House of Representatives, we urge you to write or call that member to ask for his or her co-sponsorship of H.R. 1523.
Thank you in advance for your support of this unique request. Passage of H.R. 1523 would make a real difference for the future of Sigma Phi Epsilon. It would open up a range of new possibilities for us to improve the experience we provide to our members. Your participation, through a simple letter to the appropriate Member or Members of Congress, is essential to showing broad support for this bill. There is some urgency to this request, as we believe there may be opportunities for this bill to be considered sometime this fall, so we are asking you to write and fax your letters as quickly as possible.
RLO
P.S. For your information, you may download a PDF document which contains a complete copy of the bill and supporting documents. The supporting documents are some information on Greeks’ today, the bill itself, how the bill’s passage would potentially impact fraternities and sororities, and the current tax code and how the bill would eliminate the arbitrary distinction in the code. These documents are for your education and should not be faxed to Congressional Officers.
Link to the Documents
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