Re:Catholic Church lobbied for taxpayer funds, got $1.4B
by voisin on Friday July 10, 2020 @01:09PM
(#23793710)
$50k in lobbying for $1.4B (possibly $3.5B)? Seems like a hell of a ROI.
I’ve never understood why elected officials seem willing to acquiesce to huge pork barrel projects for such little $$ in lobbying. “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Lobbying Dollars”?
Re:Catholic Church lobbied for taxpayer funds, got $1.4B
by exclusiv on Friday July 10, 2020 @01:16PM
(#23793806)
Yeah it's crazy but I think the short answer is - they aren't giving up their money.
> The Catholic News Service reported that the bishops’ conference and several major Catholic nonprofit agencies worked throughout the week of March 30 to ensure that the “unique nature of the entities would not make them ineligible for the program” because of how SBA defines a “small” business. Those conversations came just days after President Trump signed the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, which included the Paycheck Protection Program.
> In addition, federal records show the Los Angeles archdiocese, whose leader heads the bishops’ conference, paid $20,000 to lobby the U.S. Senate and House on “eligibility for non-profits” under the CARES Act. The records also show that Catholic Charities USA, a social service arm of the church with member agencies in dioceses across the country, paid another $30,000 to lobby on the act and other issues.
Also, the Catholic Church is just fundamentally a more hierarchical and unified institution compared to other denominations. Sure, other denominations have dioceses and bishops, but not as rigidly structured as Catholicism, e.g. cardinals who work directly with the Pope.