The omnibus spending bill signed by President Donald Trump will remain in effect, funding the government through September 30.

Several of the key provisions CMF members were advocating for while in D.C. for Foundations on the Hill in March received support in the spending bill.

We’re breaking down the highlights and why the philanthropic field is pushing for continued advocacy around these programs and issues beyond the current temporary spending bill.

Census 2020

As the National Council of Nonprofits shared, the bill provides an increase in funding for Census 2020, totaling $1.34 billion.

CMF is pleased that Congress has appropriated additional funding for the Census Bureau, however, due to years of underfunding there is still a great deal at stake for Census 2020 and unfortunately these concerns will not be resolved by the extra funding provided this year.

As the Michigan Nonprofits Count campaign has shared, challenges to an accurate and equitable count include:

• Access to reliable internet and cybersecurity issues: As hard-to-count populations may not have access to high-speed reliable internet this can pose an issue for an accurate count as the Census Bureau is planning to collect the majority of census information online. Also, with breaches and cybersecurity fears, people may be hesitant to share their information with the government online.

• Collecting census information: The Census Bureau’s years of underfunding will affect how they collect census information, including scaling back door-to-door outreach and decreasing the number of regional and local census offices by 50 percent.

• A lack of trust from the public in our government: The campaign shares that data from the Pew Research Center shows that only 20 percent of Americans feel they can trust our government. This can make it difficult to get people to engage and provide information to the government.

• Addition of the citizenship question: Last week the U.S. Commerce Department announced that it will add the citizenship question to the Census 2020 form. CMF requested the federal government not add the citizenship question to the Census 2020 form because it hasn’t been field tested, unlike other questions on the census form to date. By law, the form closed on March 31 and adding the citizenship question so close to that deadline means that it was too late to be field tested.

As The New York Times reported, at least a dozen states have responded to the announcement saying they are suing the federal government to block the citizenship question from being added, as they believe it will lead to an incomplete count.

As for how the funding will be allocated, Congress has directed the Census Bureau to report back to them on specifics regarding how the additional funding will be used. 

Read more about the Michigan Nonprofits Count Campaign, a statewide effort, led by the Michigan Nonprofit Association (MNA) which aims to mobilize nonprofits to support on-the-ground outreach efforts within historically hard-to-count populations to ensure a complete and accurate count in Census 2020.

Great Lakes Restoration Initiative

The bill fully funds the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) with $300 million.

The GLRI, which receives bipartisan support in Congress, is aimed at ensuring a healthy future for our lakes and protecting them from pollution, invasive species and other environmental threats.

Senator Debbie Stabenow announced that this bill supports the GLRI and “expedites action to combat Asian carp.”

Child Care

The bill provides $2.4 billion in extra funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) for states. As a result, Michigan is slated to receive an additional $69 million in federal funding, providing CCDBG-funded child care to an additional 3,480 children in the state.

As CMF has reported, our P-20 Education Affinity Group has been working deeply in this area, supported by CMF and the Office of Foundation Liaison (OFL).

As a result of the affinity group’s work and the insights provided by Building a Better Child Care System, a report funded by the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation, CMF, authorized by our P-20 Education Affinity Group, board of trustees and Public Policy Committee, advocated for increasing the threshold of eligibility for child care subsidies and for increased child care provider reimbursement rates. Both of which passed.

CMF members, OFL and advocates from around the state plan to have continued talks about what this additional CCDBG funding may mean for Michigan. We’ll share more details as this develops.

Programs that were slated for elimination in the proposed federal budget

• The National Council of Nonprofits states that the omnibus bill funds the National Endowments for the Arts (NEA) and National Endowments for the Humanities (NEH) at $153 million each, which is an increase of $3 million from last year.

• The bill provides full funding, $445 million for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).

• The Corporation for National and Community Service received a boost in funding.

CMF members advocated for full funding of these programs, asking lawmakers to support the federal funding of public-private partnerships with the nonprofit sector through these federal departments and agencies.

The Johnson Amendment

Fortunately, the bill does not include language to weaken or repeal the Johnson Amendment, thereby keeping politics out of the charitable sector.

“This is a big win for nonprofit nonpartisanship, but there’s still more to do to ensure that philanthropy stays free of political influence,” Council on Foundations (COF) tweeted.

However, as Independent Sector shared there may be future efforts to weaken or repeal it stating in part, “Congressional staff and political experts assure us that there will be efforts to try again.”

Last year, CMF joined nearly 4,500 nonprofit organizations in signing a letter of nonpartisanship which urged Congress to maintain the Johnson Amendment. 

Want more?

Read about CMF members’ trip to Capitol Hill.

See the CMF Governance Committee’s 2018 Government Relations Goals.

Census Day, April 1, 2020 is now less than two years away. Join the April 9^th webinar, Participate. Convene. Invest: A Call to Action for the 2020 Census. Check out resources from the United Philanthropy Forum.