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Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act Update
Please forward this information to your entire membership
Sigma Nu Fraternity has once again teamed up with more than 90 men’s and women’s Greek organizations through the Capital Fraternal Caucus organization in support of the Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act of 2007 (H.R.643/S.638), bills still currently pending in the United States House of Representatives and Senate.
Passage of this important legislation would amend the current Internal Revenue Code to allow tax-deductible contributions made to fraternal foundations, such as the Sigma Nu Educational Foundation, to be used for life safety and infrastructure improvements of Greek student housing. These improvements could include updated fire detection and prevention systems that would provide critical protection for students. Currently, such contributions many only be used for exclusively educational purposes as narrowly defined by the IRS.
College fraternities and sororities are the largest private landlords for college men and women, housing more than 250,000 students a year at no cost to the host institutions. Passage of the Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act would encourage new charitable contributions to improve life safety systems and increase overall housing capacity for a growing student population.
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To Date: Thousands of Greek students and alumni, including Brothers of Sigma Nu, have participated in a massive grassroots letter-writing campaign to members of Congress seeking support for this legislation. Our bill currently has 208 House sponsors (47% of House) and 40 Senate sponsors (40% of Senate).
We anticipate there will be only one or two tax bills that pass Congress for the rest of 2008, and our goal remains to try to be on |
one of those bills. However, if we don't succeed in 2008, every legislative forecast for 2009 predicts an extraordinarily busy session on the tax front, regardless of who wins the presidential election. So, we need to get this passed now!
What can you do and how can you participate?
The Capital Fraternal Caucus organization has launched a new Facebook application intended to stimulate more direct student and alumni involvement in contacting Congress in support of our legislative agenda. The application is called "Petition Your Congressman."
At the heart of the application is the ability to sign an electronic petition to your Senators and Representatives in support of specific pro-Greek legislation like the Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act. Don’t have a Facebook page? No worries, you will still be able to send an email to your Congressman via the Capital Fraternal Caucus web site.
Another benefit of the Facebook application is that it will instantly tally the participation rates of involved people. For example, we will be able to track how many petition signers we have from the Delta Delta chapter at Penn State, how many Penn State Greeks have signed and how many Sigma Nus nationwide have participated. Every chapter, campus and organization will have a sense of where its participation stands in comparison to others.
Finally, we believe there is some political benefit to be gained this election season by having a Facebook application that has a large membership, so we hope you will help us get as many of your members engaged as possible!
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