Source: United States Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn)
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Congresswoman Linda Sánchez (D-CA), along with Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Jeff Merkley (D-OR), sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) urging them to include funding for nonprofit organizations in the upcoming reconciliation package.
In the letter, the legislators highlighted the importance of ensuring their legislation, the Work Opportunities and Resources to Keep Nonprofit Organizations Well (WORK NOW) Act, is in the package. This bill will help nonprofits retain their employees, scale their service delivery, and provide unemployed Americans with new jobs serving their communities.
“Congress enacted several support programs for businesses and nonprofits over the course of the pandemic, but in many ways relief for charitable organizations has fallen short,” the legislators wrote.
They continued later in the letter: “As of June 2021, there were still more than 700,000 nonprofits jobs that had been lost due to the pandemic, creating undue challenges particularly for women and communities of color disproportionately pushed out of the workforce. We believe the WORK NOW Act is urgently needed and ask for its inclusion in the budget legislation.”
Full text of the letter can be found below and HERE.
Dear Leader Schumer and Speaker Pelosi:
We write to request that the needs of the charitable community be appropriately addressed in the budget legislation currently being drafted. Congress enacted several support programs for businesses and nonprofits over the course of the pandemic, but in many ways relief for charitable organizations has fallen short.
Nonprofits have been on the front lines from the beginning of this crisis helping millions of people in need. From food banks, to shelters, to counseling centers and houses of worship, charitable organizations are doing incredible work to help families put food on their table, provide housing assistance, serve people with disabilities and victims of abuse, and much more. However, since demand for their services soared, many nonprofit organizations are now struggling financially and have been forced to lay off staff when their communities need them more than ever.
In the budget reconciliation process, we ask you to consider the following proposals that will strengthen our charitable partners and expand their ability to provide pandemic relief, recovery, and economic growth. The Work Opportunities and Resources to Keep Nonprofit Organizations Well (WORK NOW) Act (S. 740), will help nonprofit organizations retain their employees, scale their service delivery, and provide unemployed Americans with new jobs serving their communities. As of June 2021, there were still more than 700,000 nonprofits jobs that had been lost due to the pandemic, creating undue challenges particularly for women and communities of color disproportionately pushed out of the workforce. We believe the WORK NOW Act is urgently needed and ask for its inclusion in the budget legislation.
We also ask that the budget legislation make clear that charitable nonprofits are eligible for every incentive and grant program and considered essential partners in the success of the programs and policy objectives. This means expressing inclusion of charitable properties in housing assistance and expressing eligibility for grants and contracts in youth-specific programs such as after-school programs and civilian climate corps, arts programming, support for the 211 referral system, health research, and mental health, including addiction and domestic violence services.
More than ever, nonprofits and the communities they serve need our support. Nonprofit efforts to facilitate vaccine delivery continue to show that charitable organizations have the trust, relationships, and ability to connect with residents in ways that many local governments and businesses find difficult to achieve. While we recognize there are many competing priorities seeking inclusion in the budget reconciliation bill, we believe Congress can and should do more to ensure that the needs of charitable nonprofits are kept at the forefront. We encourage you to include these provisions in the upcoming budget reconciliation package.
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