May 21, 2003. Fortunes turn quickly in legislation. Last month, the prospects for the bill that would allow authors to deduct the fair market value of donated manuscripts and other papers had never looked brighter as the bill passed the Senate. This month, the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Bill Thomas, stunned backers of the bill when he expressed fears that the measure, which has many safeguards, would be subject to abuse. As a result, our bill wasn't attached to the Charitable Giving Act of 2003 as we had hoped.

In spite of this setback, we remain very close to success. The best hope for passing the bill this year lies in getting as many co-sponsors in the House as possible. We need this surge of co-sponsors very soon. The best time to persuade your representative join in is over the Memorial Day adjournment, when your representative is likely to be in his or her district. Call to arrange a meeting with your representative. In person meetings have the greatest impact. If you can't take the time to meet with your representative in person, a fine second choice is to urge your representative by phone to support the bill. Faxes are also a good choice, since they have to be handled physically. E-mails certainly help as well, and are frequently the speediest way to get word to your representative's office.

IN BRIEF: Ask your representative to do two things in support of the bill: (1) sign on as a co-sponsor to H.R. 806, the Artists' Contribution to American Heritage Act and (2) contact Congressmen Roy Blunt (who introduced the Charitable Giving Act) and ask him to include H.R. 806 in the reconciliation of the House's Charitable Giving Act with the Senate's Care Act. A list of all representatives and their contact information is available at http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ . You may contact your representative through either their local or Washington office. The text of H.R. 806, as well as a list of its 48 (not nearly enough!) current sponsors, is available at http://thomas.loc.gov .

SPECIAL REQUEST FOR THOSE WITH REPRESENTATIVES ON THE HOUSE WAYS & MEANS COMMITTEE: Urge your representative to support the inclusion of H.R. 806 when the House and Senate Committees meet to reconcile the Charitable Giving and the CARE Acts. A list of Ways and Means members is available at: http://waysandmeans.house.gov/members.asp?comm=0 .

MEMBERS IN KERN, SAN LUIS OBISPO OR NORTHEAST LOS ANGELES COUNTIES IN CALIFORNIA: Your representative is Bill Thomas, chair of the committee. It's vital that you contact your representative and urge him to support inclusion of H.R. 806 in the reconciled bill.

TIMING: Currently, we expect the reconciliation conference to occur shortly after Memorial Day, so time is of the essence. Even if you have already done so before, please take the actions requested at your earliest opportunity.

PLEASE COPY US: If you contact your representative, please let us know. Simply e-mail us at staff@authorsguild.org to let us know you called, faxed or e-mailed your representative or send a copy of your faxed letter to our fax number, (212) 564-5363.

BACKGROUND
H.R. 806, the Artists' Contribution to American Heritage Act, would change the tax code to allow authors and artists to deduct for tax purposes the appraised market value of their own work (such as manuscripts, first editions, or fine artwork) that they donate to museums, universities and libraries. Current tax laws permit the creators to deduct only the value of the materials used in creating the original manuscript. Collectors and others, however, are permitted to deduct the fair market value of donated manuscripts.

With passage of the Senate's version of that legislation, known as the Artist-Museum Partnership Act, as part of the CARE Act in April, we have never come closer to righting this inequity. Our best hope for success was in having the House Ways and Means Committee vote to attach H.R. 806 to the Charitable Giving Act of 2003 (similar to the Senate's CARE Act). Unfortunately, the Charitable Giving Act was introduced by Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) without H.R. 806 attached. We've learned that the chair of the Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Bill Thomas (R-Cal.), expressed concern that the deduction might be abused with inflated appraisals or lead to unwanted donations. (For the record: There are many safeguards against inflated appraisals in the bill, and the IRS would have the authority to prescribe regulations to assure that the deduction wasn't abused. The fear of unwanted donations is clearly unwarranted. Archiving is costly, library budgets are tight, and no library is compelled to accept donations.)

When House and Senate conferences meet to reconcile the CARE Act with the Charitable Giving Act, they will need to decide whether to include our legislation. The more co-sponsors H.R. 806 has in the House, the more likely it is to be included in the reconciled legislation. As it is, H.R. 806 has only 48 co-sponsors -- not nearly enough to support its inclusion.