While House and Senate negotiators are beginning to advance must-pass export tax repeal legislation (H.R. 4520, S. 1637 ), some lawmakers are beating down doors to slip legislation harmful to nonprofits into the bill by the backdoor -- a bill that would allow church electioneering. Political pressure is building on powerful House lawmakers as well as on Senate conferees to the export tax repeal bill to allow religious organizations to endorse political candidates and use their resources for partisan activities. Conservative lawmakers are trying to include the, Houses of Worship Free Speech Restoration Act, H.R. 235, into the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004, H.R. 4520, currently slated to go to conference. The church electioneering bill has already been rejected twice in the House. H.R. 235 discriminates against nonreligious nonprofits by giving religious organizations rights that other 501(c)(3) groups would not have. It would also permit considerable expenditures of tax-deductible funds to publicize endorsement-sermons and other election-related presentations made during religious services or gatherings through television, radio, and other media. This soft-money loophole would hurt all nonprofits. See our action alert to let your representatives know HR 235 is a bad idea for nonprofits. On another front, a series of reforms proposed by Senate Finance Committee staff that would provide greater scrutiny of charities is also currently under debate. In July, the Senate Finance Committee held hearings on possible reform to the tax laws that govern nonprofits. The Finance Committee is angling to get some language on accountability included into pending tax legislation. Committee staff began drafting language in case legislators decide to move forward with proposals to eliminate some controversial charitable tax deductions to raise revenue this year. This effort has been bolstered by the recent release of a Brookings Institute study, Sustaining Nonprofit Performance:The Case for Capacity Building and the Evidence to Support It. The study showed that public confidence in charitable organizations has steadily declined over the past few years.