April is National Volunteer Month — a reminder that the charitable sector runs, in no small part, on the conviction that showing up for your community matters. Tens of millions of Americans do exactly that every year, giving their time to organizations working on everything from food security to crisis intervention to affordable housing. It’s a powerful expression of civil society in action, and one that doesn’t happen in a vacuum. The policy decisions taking shape on Capitol Hill this spring will have real consequences for the organizations that make this work possible.
Johnson Amendment Survives Another Challenge
A federal appeals court has dismissed the proposed consent agreement in National Religious Broadcasters v. Bessent, a case challenging whether religious organizations could be carved out from the Johnson Amendment’s restrictions on political campaign activity by tax-exempt organizations. On March 31, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit dismissed the case on jurisdictional grounds, finding that the plaintiffs’ claims fall within the scope of the Tax Anti-Injunction Act — which bars courts from restraining IRS enforcement actions — leaving the court without jurisdiction to proceed.
The dismissal is procedural rather than a ruling on the merits, but the practical effect is the same: The existing framework remains intact, and this particular avenue for challenging the law’s reach is closed. For the charitable sector, that’s a consequential outcome. The Johnson Amendment’s restrictions on partisan political activity are a meaningful safeguard against the instrumentalization of nonprofits for electoral purposes, and a carve-out for religious organizations would have created pressure points across the broader sector. For now, the line holds.
Reconciliation, Round II
Following the signing of the One Big Beautiful Bill into law in the summer of 2025, Senate Republicans have taken the first step toward a second reconciliation bill during this Congress. Senate Budget Committee Chair Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) unveiled a budget resolution that would fully fund ICE and U.S. Border Patrol through the remainder of President Trump’s term — after Senate Democrats repeatedly blocked a Homeland Security appropriations bill that included funding for those agencies. GOP aides expect the final reconciliation bill to allocate between $70 and $80 billion to fund the two agencies through 2029, with a May 15 deadline for the relevant committees to submit their proposals.
The package raises concerns beyond its stated scope. Growing pressure within House GOP ranks to use the vehicle to target ill-defined fraud in Democratic-led states raises serious questions about federal overreach and state-level protections. For the charitable sector, the broader fiscal picture warrants attention: The One Big Beautiful Bill already allocated more than $170 billion for border security and immigration enforcement, and this package would layer an additional $70 to $80 billion on top of that — budget priorities that leave limited room for the domestic programs and community services that nonprofits depend on to do their work.
Estimating the Value of Volunteer Time
On April 21, Independent Sector and the Do Good Institute released the updated value of volunteer time, now set at $36.14 per hour — a 3.9% increase from last year. Charitable organizations frequently use this figure to quantify the community support they receive from volunteers and to demonstrate organizational impact to funders and stakeholders.
This report also includes state-level values for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Values range from $17.99 in Puerto Rico to $54.77 in the District of Columbia. Georgia saw the highest rate of growth, with the value of a volunteer hour rising from $32.64 to $35.22 — a 7.9% increase.
Lawmakers Push Back on PSLF Rule
The Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program remains in flux after the Trump administration finalized — but not yet implemented — a rule that would allow the Secretary of Education to limit employer eligibility based on a nonprofit’s mission or perceived ideological alignment, using a vague and undefined “substantial illegal purpose” standard. The practical effect is to cast a cloud of uncertainty over both borrowers and the organizations that employ them, with serious implications for the nonprofit workforce and the communities they serve.
In response, Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), and Cory Booker (D-NJ) introduced a Congressional Review Act resolution to overturn the rule, with a companion resolution in the House led by Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT), Alma Adams (D-NC), and Scott Peters (D-CA). The bicameral effort has drawn broad support in the Senate Democratic caucus — including from Minority Leader Schumer and more than two dozen cosponsors. It argues the rule directly contradicts the intent of the program — created by Congress in 2007 with bipartisan support and signed into law by President George W. Bush — qualifying all 501(c)(3) employers as eligible, full stop. The resolution needs 30 Senate signatures to be called for a floor vote, where a simple majority would carry it.
Congress Urged to Fund Nonprofit Workforce Data
As Congress begins its work on the FY27 appropriations cycle, Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-RI) and Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) led sign-on letters to the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies subcommittees requesting $4 million to enable the Bureau of Labor Statistics to include nonprofit workforce data in its Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW). Currently, nonprofits account for nearly 10% of the nation’s workforce — yet BLS does not reflect them in the QCEW and instead releases a standalone nonprofit report only once every five years or so. The House letter closed with 28 signatures and the Senate letter with 26, a significant increase from FY26.
1,300 Nonprofits Tell GSA: Pull Back the SAM Proposal
The March 30 comment deadline on the General Services Administration’s proposed changes to the System for Award Management came and went with a clear message from the sector: Don’t do this. More than 1,300 organizations — including Independent Sector and many of its members — signed a national letter opposing the proposal, which would impose new certification requirements on any organization applying for or receiving federal financial assistance.
Under this proposal applicants would need to attest, under penalty of criminal and civil law, that they are not engaged in DEI activities characterized as illegal under recent executive orders and DOJ guidance, as well as certify compliance with new provisions touching on immigration and terrorism. The terms are broadly undefined, which is part of the problem: Organizations can’t certify compliance with language vague enough it could mean almost anything, and the threat of prosecution for getting it wrong is real. The likely result is that well-qualified nonprofits — particularly smaller organizations without in-house legal counsel — will opt out of federal funding altogether rather than accept that exposure.
That’s not a hypothetical risk. It’s a structural outcome the proposal creates by design. When trusted local organizations step back from federal partnerships, the communities those programs exist to serve are the ones left without services. The sector’s opposition here isn’t about paperwork — it’s about who delivers essential services and under what conditions.
Travis Swanson is the Government Relations Manager at Independent Sector
