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April 26, 2024
 
News
Overview: This week, the Senate passed and President Biden signed a $95 billion foreign aid bill for Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan.
Earmarks: Remember that Congress is accepting Community Project Funding requests, commonly known as earmarks. Earmarks are a funding request for a non-governmental entity to carry out a specific project; for example, a Catholic Charities agency may be provided funds for a substance abuse treatment program. Billions of dollars are still available. You should contact your member of Congress for more information on how to apply for an earmark, or please reach out to the Find your elected officials ([link removed]).
More on earmarks: House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole (R-OK) released guidance for FY 2025 Community Project Funding requests (a.k.a., earmarks) and deadlines for all FY 2025 Member requests. He noted that nonprofits are no longer eligible for Community Project Funding in the Economic Development Initiative (EDI) account. Similar to previous reforms made in this Congress, this change aims to ensure projects are consistent with the community development goals of the federal program.
A letter from Chairman Cole addressing his colleagues is available here ([link removed]).
The electronic submission portal is available here ([link removed]).
Submission deadlines and request guidance are available here ([link removed]).
Nursing homes: CCUSA joined in an Interfaith Roundtable statement asking the Biden Administration to delay the implementation of two rules affecting the management and operations of nursing homes. The statement says that rules on a certain staff to patient ratio and funding mechanisms for Medicaid do not appreciate the realities of running nursing homes, namely a dearth of nurses and inadequate funding. If the rules were implemented immediately, they would negatively affect the operations of many nursing homes, including ones managed by Catholic Charities agencies. Before implementing the rules, the administration should seek to increase the pool of nurses and help with funding.
Overtime Final Rule: The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has released its Overtime Final Rule designed to update and revise overtime protections for millions of workers employed by nonprofits, for-profits, and governments. The final rule, set to start going into effect on July 1, 2024, increases the minimum salary level that white-collar employees must be paid to exempt them from overtime pay of time and half of wages for hours worked more than 40 in any week. The standard salary level will go from the current equivalent of $35,568 per year to $43,888 per year starting on July 1, and rise to nearly $59,000 annually on January 1, 2025. The Labor Department is also raising the minimum salary level for "highly compensated employees" from $107,432 per year to more than $151,000 in two steps, and establishing a mechanism for automatically raising these salary levels in the future, starting in 2027.
This new rule could impact the compensation budgets for non-exempt employees in some of our agencies. DOL estimates that the Final Rule will convert 4.34 million nonprofit workers from exempt to hourly employees if their weekly earnings do not increase to the new salary levels. The Labor Department projects a total cost of $44.8 million to nonprofit employers, at an average cost of $1,777 per entity in the first year.The Overtime Final Rule will likely be challenged in court, as was an overtime rule published in 2016. The outcome of the litigation is unclear.
Child Tax Credit: Along with other Christian communities, CCUSA signed a action alert ([link removed]) concerning the CTC that individuals may send to their senators.
Economy: In the week ending April 20, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial unemployment claims ([link removed]) was 207,000, a decrease of 5,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 212,000. The 4-week moving average was 213,250, a decrease of 1,250 from the previous week's unrevised average of 214,500.
Convening on homelessness: Attend one of CCUSA's regional convenings on homelessness, which will be co-hosted by local Catholic Charities agencies. Representatives from the government and faith-based organizations shared challenges, ideas, solutions, and models of best practices for addressing homelessness. Registration ([link removed]) is open for Dallas, Texas (May 7-8); Philadelphia, Pa. (June 5-6); Providence, RI (June 24-25); and Phoenix, Ariz. (Oct. 24-25). There is no cost to register, but space is limited. Also, a limited number of stipends for travel costs are available to Catholic Charities agency staff members.
 
Trivia
Q. What is the provenance of the term "earmark"?
Please send your answers to election of Benedict XVI ([link removed]).
 
Connections
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