Press Releases

WASHINGTON ­­­­- National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) President Rick Cohen released the following statement immediately after today's 54-44 Senate vote on the Gramm-Kyl estate tax plan.  Supporters of the plan fell six votes shy of the 60 needed to advance the measure:

The Senate's rejection of the Gramm-Kyl estate tax repeal plan is a victory for America's charities and for the 98 percent of taxpayers who would have been stuck paying $850 billion dollars had the measure passed.  As a member of the steering committee of Americans for a Fair Estate Tax, NCRP supports appropriate reform rather than a costly repeal of the estate tax.  As a philanthropy watchdog organization, NCRP has been especially concerned that the proposed complete estate tax repeal would have significantly hurt America's charities.  This afternoon, Senate supporters of the Gramm-Kyl estate tax plan failed to muster the necessary votes to move forward with the measure, and it is now considered unlikely that they will be able to force another vote on the issue before the November elections.

At least for today, the U.S. Senate has wisely rejected the Gramm-Kyl estate tax plan to permanently mandate that multi-million-dollar estates would never have to pay any taxes.  The measure was as unfair as it was unwise; it would have hurt our nation's hard-pressed charities and picked the pockets of most American taxpayers - to the tune of $850 billion. The Gramm-Kyl plan would have been a large gift to a small handful of multi-million-dollar estates at the expense of 98 percent of taxpayers, who would have been left to make up the difference to pay for Medicare, Social Security, education and homeland security.

Also of great concern to NCRP, the Gramm-Kyl estate tax plan was a threat to our nation's charities.  It would have removed a major incentive for charitable giving - ironically at the very moment when Congress and the president are looking to promote charity.

Under the Gramm-Kyl plan, America's charities stood to lose billions of dollars in vital contributions every year - crucial support for the most vulnerable among us.  Such a loss would have been all the more devastating amidst today's harsh federal and state budget realities that are leaving disadvantaged Americans quite literally out in the cold.   It is nonprofit organizations that are left to stand in the gap during such periods of sacrifice; it seems neither compassionate nor conservative to cut one leg out from under America's charities at just such a critical time.