To express the sense of the Senate regarding the Federal income tax deduction for charitable giving.

SA 716. Mr. THUNE proposed an amendment to amendment SA 687 proposed
by Ms. Mikulski (for herself and Mr. Isakson) to the bill H.R. 1388, to
reauthorize and reform the national service laws; as follows:

At the appropriate place, insert the following:

SEC. --. SENSE OF THE SENATE.

(a) Findings.--The Senate finds the following:
(1) President John F. Kennedy said, ``The raising of
extraordinarily large sums of money, given voluntarily and
freely by millions of our fellow Americans, is a unique
American tradition . . . Philanthropy, charity, giving
voluntarily and freely . . . call it what you like, but it is
truly a jewel of an American tradition''.
(2) Americans gave more than $300,000,000,000 to charitable
causes in 2007, an amount equal to roughly 2 percent of the
gross domestic product.
(3) The vast majority of those donations, roughly 75
percent or $229,000,000,000, came from individuals.
(4) Studies have shown that Americans give far more to
charity than the people of any other industrialized nation--
more than twice as much, measured as a share of gross
domestic product, than the citizens of Great Britain, and 10
times more than the citizens of France.
(5) 7 out of 10 American households donate to charities to
support a wide range of religious, educational, cultural,
health care, and environmental goals.
(6) These charities provide innumerable valuable public
services to society's most vulnerable citizens during
difficult economic times.
(7) Congress has provided incentives through the Internal
Revenue Code of 1986 to encourage charitable giving by
allowing individuals to deduct income given to tax-exempt
charities.
(8) 41,000,000 American households, constituting 86 percent
of taxpayers who itemize deductions, took advantage of this
deduction to give to the charities of their choice.
(b) Sense of the Senate.--It is the sense of the Senate
that Congress should preserve the full income tax deduction
for charitable contributions through the Internal Revenue
Code of 1986 and look for additional ways to encourage
charitable giving rather than to discourage it.
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