Wrapping up the 2018 Legislative Session

​Welcome to our final Legislative Watch for the 2018 Idaho Legislative Session! Although the session has ended, we will continue to update you if any legislation comes up impacting nonprofits and the sector.

In This Issue

1. Wrapping Up
2. Power of Advocacy
3. Omnibus Spending Bill

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The Power of Advocacy

Idaho has many dedicated organizations and individuals supporting their communities. Sometimes, nonprofits - in order to advance their missions - have to stand up and advocate. Idaho’s nonprofit health clinics did just that to pass House Bill 513. This bill was signed into law by Governor Otter on March 19, 2018 and amends existing law to provide a sales tax exemption for the Idaho Association of Free and Charitable Clinics and its member clinics.

More resources will now go to families and clients of these caring nonprofits. Congratulations!

From left to right, Senator Grant Burgoyne, Josh Campbell and Steve Davis from the Genesis Community Health Clinic in Garden City, Governor Butch Otter, Arne Walker from Wellness Tree Community Clinic, Representative Clark Kauffman, Tom Bowman from the Canyon County Clinic.

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Omnibus Spending Bill (FY 2018)

Learn more about the omnibus spending bill here. Highlights below:
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• What is it?: On Friday, March 23, President Trump signed the 2,232-page omnibus spending bill into law. The $1.3 trillion "Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018" funds the federal government through the remainder of the current fiscal year (September 30, 2018).
  
  
• Possibility of more nonprofit funding! - according to the National Council of Nonprofits, “the omnibus spending bill provides an additional $143 billion in spending for the remainder of FY 2018 compared to limits set under a 2011 deficit reduction law. The law provides $80 billion in new spending for defense and $63 billion more for domestic programs. It includes additional funding for many federal programs that hire charitable nonprofits to perform services on behalf of governments in communities.”
  
  
  • The good news: lawmakers did not include a provision to repeal or weaken the longstanding Johnson Amendment, the law that protects charitable nonprofits, houses of worship, and foundations from partisan politics.
    
    
• A $1.34 billion increase in funding for the U.S. Census Bureau. This is double what President Trump had requested for census funding and will help ensure a complete and accurate census count in the 2020 Census.
  
  
• A $350 million funding increase for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, which helps many nonprofit employees.
  
  
• A 10% increase in funding for the Internal Revenue Service, the main federal agency that regulates charitable and tax-exempt nonprofits.
  
  
• Reductions in funding from last year's expenditures in the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP or food stamps).
  
  
  • This has left WIC’s net funding level for FY 2018 at $5.35 billion (compared to $5.5 billion in FY 2017).
    
    
  • The omnibus bill funds WIC at $6.175 billion ($185 million off of NWA’s request and $175 million below FY 2017). Details on changes here.
    
    
  • The omnibus contains a $4.5 billion cut to SNAP compared to FY 2017, slashing the program’s total budget by nearly 6%. SNAP will now be funded at a total of $74 billion for FY 2018.
    
    
  • SNAP is: “SNAP funds to any “work registration or workfare requirements” required by law”
    
    

Small increases in funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Corporation for National and Community Services, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The President had proposed eliminating all of these programs in his budget blueprint.

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Brooke Damico

Legislative Watch is written by Brooke Damico, a public policy student at Boise State University.