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April 21, 2023

‘Save women’s sports’ bill passes House with zero votes from Dems, who call it transgender ‘bullying’

The Residence on Thursday passed legislation aimed at avoiding organic males from competing as transgender athletes in girls’ and women’s sports activities at colleges throughout the place, after a debate in which numerous Democrats accused Republicans of “bullying” transgender pupils by calling up the monthly bill.

The Security of Women of all ages and Girls in Sports activities Act handed in a 219-203 vote Thursday early morning — all the “certainly” votes came from Republicans, and all the “no” votes came from Democrats.

Republicans defended the monthly bill as an try to spare ladies and girls from possessing to contend from transgender women of all ages and girls — organic males who can occasionally dominate these sporting activities and stop some woman athletes from creating the team. But many Democrats argued in debate that the GOP monthly bill is an extension of the bullying that transgender college students are by now facing at faculty.

“This monthly bill is about bullying little ones,” mentioned Rep. Greg Landsman, D-Ohio. “Quit bullying young children.”

“House Republicans are deciding upon to bully and belittle trans kids,” argued Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif. “This is about attacking a little group of young children, and it is shameful.”

RILEY GAINES ‘AMBUSHED AND Physically HIT’ Following Preserving WOMEN’S Sporting activities SPEECH AT SAN FRANCISCO Point out

Penn Quakers swimmer Lia Thomas, still left, retains a trophy right after finishing fifth in the 200 freestyle at the NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships in 2022, as Kentucky Wildcats swimmer Riley Gaines looks on at Ga Tech. The Home on Thursday passed a monthly bill aimed at blocking organic males from competing in women’s sports activities. (Brett Davis-United states Now Sports activities)

“We ought to rename it the ‘cancel little ones trans hate’ invoice,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., reported of the legislation. “This invoice fuels a virulent detest marketing campaign in opposition to youngsters who just want to play with their mates.”

Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., claimed the bill would make college sports “significantly less safe and sound for ladies and girls,” and argued that even speaking about the laws on the Residence ground was carrying out hurt to transgender pupils.

“This debate itself has been traumatizing,” he asserted.

Republicans turned down these arguments and claimed they are seeking to guard girls’ and women’s sports activities from currently being taken more than by organic males. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., reported Democrats are disregarding the “physical strengths” that males have about women of all ages and turned down Jayapal’s argument that the GOP is waging a “detest” marketing campaign versus transgender college students.

“We despise no one particular,” Foxx reported. “It is absurd that we have experienced to stand in this article nowadays to protect the rights of females and ladies to participate in athletics against other girls and ladies and they not currently being taken edge of by biological males.”

ESPN PERSONALITIES SLAM BIDEN’S TITLE IX PROPOSAL AMID UPROAR Around TRANSGENDER ATHLETES IN WOMEN’S Athletics

Rep. Mark Takano, a Democrat from California, stated that even debating the bill to continue to keep organic males out of women’s sporting activities was “traumatizing.” (Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Photographs)

Republicans also accused Democrats of pursuing transgender legal rights to an illogical end that goes in opposition to the intent of Title IX, which most credit rating with drastically expanding participation in women’s sporting activities.

“Congress in 1972 produced Title IX to protect women’s sporting activities to empower females to have an equal taking part in area in athletics,” said Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., who sponsored the Security of Women of all ages and Girls in Sporting activities Act. “In worship to their trans idols, the administration would like to flip that on its head. It is insane.”

Underneath Steube’s bill, educational institutions that receive Title IX funding from the federal federal government would not be permitted to “allow a human being whose sexual intercourse is male to participate in an athletic program or action that is created for women of all ages or ladies.” The invoice adds that the intercourse of an athlete is outlined only by their “reproductive biology and genetics at delivery.”

RILEY GAINES BLASTS SF Condition College MEMBER WHO Called PROTESTS AT Coronary heart OF INCIDENT ‘PEACEFUL’

Rep. Bob Great, R-Va., observed the perfectly-recognised circumstance of Lia Thomas, a organic male who competed towards women of all ages and received an NCAA swimming title very last yr.

“Lia Thomas, whose provided title at birth is William Thomas, ranks 65th among adult men in the 500-garden men’s freestyle even so, he could defeat all the organic ladies,” Great reported. “A female student athlete at nearby Virginia Tech lost her opportunity to contend in the finals simply because a man took her place.”

NCAA winner swimmer Riley Gaines, who competed against Thomas and is now an activist looking to protect women’s sports activities from trans athletes, said she supported Steube’s bill when he launched it.

Rep. Greg Steube, a Republican from Florida, released the invoice to “save women’s sporting activities,” which is backed by former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines. Each and every Republican voted on Thursday to pass the invoice. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Bloomberg by means of Getty Visuals)

“As an athlete who has experienced the injustice of competing versus a male firsthand, I am grateful for the leadership of Consultant Steube,” Gaines wrote. “He has made it crystal clear that he will combat for fairness, privacy, and safety for women and women in sporting activities.”

Steube has mentioned he introduced his monthly bill in purchase to “help you save women’s athletics” from transgender ladies and ladies who are denying biological women and women places on the team’s roster, and from time to time dominate these sports activities. He reported a harmful shift in U.S. society necessitates a protection from Congress.

“In excess of the previous numerous several years there has been a perversion in our society by the enemy, and the left has wholly embraced the lie to erase the traces of gender and to encourage you there is not truly gender, and that gender is fluid and can be whichever you want whenever you want,” he mentioned. “The still left has taken gender identification so much that a lot of on the remaining currently are not able to even determine what a lady is for concern of retribution by trans activists.”

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Home passage sends the bill to the Senate, where Democrat leaders are not likely to consider it up, and President Biden has stated he would veto the bill if it made it to his desk.

Pete Kasperowicz is a politics editor at Fox Information Electronic.

February 7, 2023

Goldman Sachs makes a bold housing market call

The U.S. housing market could possibly finally be nearing the bottom. At minimum that is in accordance to Goldman Sachs.

Just two weeks after Goldman Sachs downgraded its outlook for the U.S. housing industry in a paper titled Obtaining Even worse Ahead of Getting Better, the financial investment lender reversed study course on Jan. 23 in a paper titled 2023 Housing Outlook: Discovering a Trough.

Instead of U.S. house charges slipping 6.1{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} in 2023, which was their Jan. 10 prediction, researchers at the investment lender now expect nationwide home selling prices to conclude 2023 down just 2.6{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502}.

By the time U.S. property price ranges base out this summertime, Goldman Sachs suggests, national home costs will be down about 6{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} from its June 2022 peak. Formerly, Goldman Sachs scientists have been anticipating that peak-to-trough decline to arrive in closer to 10{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502}.

“We assume a peak-to-trough decline in countrywide home prices of approximately 6{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} and for rates to prevent declining all over midyear. On a regional basis, we project much larger declines across the Pacific Coast and Southwest regions—which have noticed the biggest raises in inventory on average—and more modest declines throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest—which have taken care of increased affordability about the earlier pair years,” wrote the researchers.

Why the upward revision? Modern info, Goldman Sachs suggests, factors to an uptick in homebuyer demand from customers.

“Home sales surface set to change bigger. Home loan buy purposes have averaged 9{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} higher than their October trough so considerably in January, and survey-primarily based steps of purchasing intentions have rebounded sharply,” wrote Goldman Sachs scientists.

To get a far better thought of where by both of those national and regional household charges could be headed, Fortune requested Goldman Sachs to give us with its full forecast.

Let us consider a glimpse.

As opposed to KPMG, Goldman Sachs does not be expecting a double-digit residence selling price correction. The investment lender suggests there are three explanations why a steeper correction won’t take place this cycle.

“Very first, the speedy buildup of untapped house fairness around the past pair several years suggests that even if price ranges declined extra sharply than we count on, only a little share of home loan debtors would be underwater,” wrote Goldman Sachs researchers. “2nd, in excess of 90{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} of remarkable home loans are set level, meaning that the increase in interest charges will not direct to a spike in personal debt provider expenditures for most house owners. And third, house equilibrium sheets continue being strong, with low combination leverage and sizeable remaining pent-up savings from the COVID-19 pandemic.”

All those a few components, Goldman Sachs states, need to protect against the prospective “for the cascading defaults that contributed to the post-GFC drawdown.” That previous correction—after the 2007–2008 World Economic Disaster (GFC), which saw U.S. house price ranges slide 26{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} among 2007 and 2012—is four occasions increased than the 6{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} peak-to-trough decline Goldman Sachs is predicting this time about.

Whilst Goldman Sachs expects nationwide dwelling costs to tumble 2.6{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} in 2023, not each and every market place will be so fortunate.

In 2023, Goldman Sachs expects double-digit household selling price declines only in overheated markets like Austin (-16{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502}), San Francisco (-14{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502}), San Diego (-13{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502}), Phoenix (-13{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502}), Denver (-11{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502}), Seattle (-11{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502}), Tampa (-11{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502}), and Las Vegas (-11{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502}). On the beneficial side, Goldman Sachs expects household charges will rise in marketplaces like Baltimore (+.5{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502}) and Miami (+.8{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502}).

“Metro-amount trends will be dictated by a tug-of-war concerning housing need and source. MSAs [metros] with much better affordability like Chicago and Philadelphia—for which payments on new mortgages only price tag roughly a quarter of month to month income—should see scaled-down home value declines than metros with weak affordability like lots of towns in the West—some of which are seeing home finance loan payments claim three-quarters of monthly income,” wrote Goldman Sachs scientists in their most recent be aware.

On the mortgage loan amount front, Goldman Sachs states potential buyers should not anticipate considerably reduction. By the conclude of 2023, the financial commitment lender expects the common 30-year preset mortgage charge will tick back up to 6.5{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502}. As of Thursday, the average 30-yr fastened mortgage level sits at 6.09{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502}.

On the lookout for more housing predictions? Observe me on Twitter at @NewsLambert.

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January 25, 2023

NBC should finally call time on Tony Dungy’s amiable right-wing zealotry | NFL

No sports league does more than the National Football League to encourage the stereotype of the glass-chewing, expletive-spewing coach. Tony Dungy, though, was more Kenneth Parcell than Bill Parcells – a soft-spoken, clean-cut ex-defensive back whose winning pedigree and strategic ingenuity rightly earned him pride of place among the titans of his profession. That Dungy is also a Black pioneer makes him especially useful to commissioner Roger Goodell’s efforts to “protect the [NFL] shield” from the seasonal assaults on its undying legacy of racial and gender inequality. Since transitioning to a lofty post-retirement role as co-host of NBC’s top-rated NFL telecasts, it’s been on the 67-year-old to serve up even-toned reassurances of the league’s commitment to fair play. But when it comes to Dungy’s personal views, the coach will happily talk tough.

Last Friday, Washington DC’s National Mall was the site of the March for Life, a pro-life rally that kicked off in 1974 – a year after Roe v Wade was decided. Interestingly, the rally was conceived by anti-abortionists on the left – first as a one off, then as a protest that would annually recur until Roe v Wade was overturned. But it’s long since been taken over by the right and turned into a political football. In 2020 Donald Trump became the first sitting president to attend the event in person. Dungy’s maiden appearance for the 50th edition of the March, the first since Roe was overturned, was no less noteworthy.

Reading from his iPhone, the coach, one of 20-odd keynote speakers, delivered a four-minute sermon on the power of prayer and its ability to compel nonbelievers to appreciate the significance of human life. He made a parable out of Damar Hamlin – the 24-year-old Buffalo Bills safety whose heart stopped beating after a routine tackle. The real miracle, Dungy intoned, wasn’t the resurrectional medical care Hamlin received on the field and in hospital that put him on track for a full comeback. No, it was the TV cameras lingering on Buffalo and Cincinnati players knelt in prayer, the kind of devotion that the league once threatened to fine his teams for. It was that game getting canceled, despite its urgent on-field and financial impacts, because a life hung in the balance. “Even people who aren’t necessarily religious got together and called on God,” Dungy said. “Well, that should be encouraging to us.”

Dungy’s words, while cheered by tens of thousands of revelers, weren’t as enthusiastically received off the Mall – not least his wife, Lauren, waiting in the wings to follow him on stage and extol the virtues of adoption. Progressive sports pundits took particular exception to the coach using Hamlin’s near-death experience as a Trojan Horse for his views on the termination of unborn fetuses. Dave Zirin, the Nation’s venerable sports columnist, called Dungy’s speech “obscene”. Beforehand, Keith Olbermann, the foundational ESPN sportscaster turned NBC politico, beseeched his former employer to cut ties with the coach. “He’s using you,” Olbermann tweeted.

All of this came after Dungy lit a firestorm earlier in the week with a hot non-sports take. In response to a Daily Wire tweet about Minnesota house members pushing a bill that would put menstrual products in boys’ school bathrooms, Dungy snarked, “some school districts are putting litter boxes in school bathrooms for students who identify as cats“ – furthering a exhaustively debunked anecdote that’s nonetheless become popular with Lauren Boebert, Joe Rogan and other self-styled “free-thinkers”. Danny Kanell, a clipboard-holding QB turned sports-talk host, was one notable member of the NFL to publicly defend Dungy, calling him “morally upright” while bashing news stories suggesting otherwise as “hatred of Christianity”. But that wasn’t enough to stop the all-out social media blitz from overwhelming the Hall of Fame coach.

Tony Dungy made headlines by speaking at the 50th March for Life Rally on Friday on the National Mall in Washington DC. Photograph: Bonnie Cash/UPI/REX/Shutterstock

After discreetly deleting his kitty litter jab and expressing contrition via a lawyered statement, Dungy returned to Twitter on Saturday to apologize anew and reestablish himself as a universal-loving Christian. And the extra effort might’ve resonated if the coach hadn’t also included a screenshot of the second sorry note in quotes inside a text message bubble that one can only presume was also generated by a spokesperson. Not surprisingly, the fumbled apology has given Dungy’s critics reason to pile on all over again. Worse, you’d never know this was the same coach who was once so masterful at doing things the right way.

As a pro in the 1970s, Dungy humbly accepted a conversion from quarterback to defensive back and became a key contributor on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Super Bowl dynasty in 1978. In the early ’80s, after a three-year playing career, he transitioned over to the Steelers’ defensive coaching staff, was promoted to coordinator, and took a demotion to defensive backs coach in stride after a hard losing season.

By the mid-’90s, he was running the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and transforming them from a league doormat to a defensive dynamo with his Tampa 2 bend-but-don’t break defense. When he was ousted from that job in 2002, Dungy re-emerged with the Indianapolis Colts and turned that Peyton Manning-led juggernaut into a championship winner – the first directed by a Black head coach – with a 2007 victory in Super Bowl XL against Chicago Bears coach Lovie Smith, one of a long line of Black sideline generals to descend Dungy’s coaching tree. A decade ago, the success of Dungy’s lineage was presented as the first and last reason to hire non-white coaches.

But somewhere along the way, something in Dungy snapped. After his oldest son, James, took his own life in 2005, the coach went from speaking at conferences for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes to fundraising for a think tank that opposes same-sex marriage. When Michael Sam, pro football’s first out gay player, was drafted by the St Louis Rams in 2014, Dungy said he wouldn’t have wanted the University of Missouri linebacker on his team because of his sexual orientation and the potential distractions it might bring. Mind you, this is the same paragon of gridiron virtue who argued for Michael Vick to be rehired after the Pro Bowl quarterback was federally imprisoned for running a dog fighting ring; Dungy also said he’d welcome Ray Rice back into an NFL locker room after the Pro Bowl tailback was banished from the league for KO’ing his girlfriend.

All the while Dungy rates among the NFL’s worst television analysts, providing the least insight in the most monotone delivery. Only he could make the last minutes of Jacksonville’s wildcard comeback against Los Angeles about as thrilling as Ben Stein’s roll call in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. (Not even the great Al Michaels, clearly beaten down from announcing too many Thursday night games, could inject any more life into the broadcast.)

The low energy alone would be reason enough for NBC to at least bench Dungy. But he remains a prominent part of the network’s NFL coverage and figures to remain so next season. Sticking by dodgy NFL analysts is a routine play for NBC. Lead announcer Mike Tirico has a graveyard of sexual allegations from his ESPN days, and so does fantasy man Matthew Berry; Michele Tafoya, NBC’s longtime NFL reporter, made a full heel turn to anti-woke punditry after retiring from the sideline. It’s hardly a shock that Dung – a rich, platformed member of the jockocracy–would espouse conservative Christian ideology, or that he’d be tempted to draw sports analogies in his rhetoric. But as long as Dungy has the NFL for a bully pulpit, he’s no less polarizing a football man than Rush Limbaugh was during his brief ESPN stay. Dungy can speak his mind all he wants; you won’t read me telling him to stick to sports. But the NFL might want to think about finding a new human shield. This one’s lost his integrity.

December 8, 2022

Top Republicans stay silent on Trump’s call to terminate the Constitution

Leading Republicans have stayed silent as the White Home strongly criticized previous President Donald Trump for suggesting that the Constitution be terminated in his ongoing attempts to overturn the effects of the 2020 election.

In a post to his Reality Social system Saturday, Trump known as for the termination of the Constitution to set him back again in electricity, citing his baseless statements of widespread election fraud in the final presidential election. “A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude lets for the termination of all regulations, polices, and articles, even those people located in the Structure,” he wrote.

Trump’s post came just after Twitter CEO Elon Musk promoted a collection of tweets Friday revealing interior paperwork about how the corporation managed a New York Submit write-up about Hunter Biden in 2020.

In a assertion to NBC Information and other news outlets, the White Home stated attacks on the Constitution ought to be “universally condemned.”

“Attacking the Structure and all it stands for is anathema to the soul of our nation and should really be universally condemned,” White Property spokesman Andrew Bates said, describing the Structure as a “sacrosanct doc.”

As of Sunday early morning, Republican leaders, such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Home Minority Chief Kevin McCarthy of California, as very well as the Republican Nationwide Committee experienced not publicly commented on Trump’s write-up. NBC News arrived at out to spokespeople for McConnell, McCarthy and the RNC for remark Saturday but did not obtain any response.

A handful of distinguished Republicans, having said that, were being pressed to weigh in on Sunday applications.

“Properly, naturally, I don’t aid that,” Rep.-elect Mike Lawler of New York claimed in an job interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“The Structure is established for a reason, to defend the legal rights of every single American. And so I surely do not endorse that language or that sentiment. I feel the query for all people is how we transfer ahead,” Lawler mentioned, incorporating that he thinks People are “tired of talking about the grievances of prior elections” and that Trump would be “well-encouraged to emphasis on the upcoming, if he is going to operate for president once again.”

Marc Small, former Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, lamented that Trump’s remarks have turn into a “consistent development,” pointing out that the previous president experienced demanded that Pence place the Structure apart to overturn the election final results right after he misplaced re-election to Joe Biden.

“The president’s remarks, the company he’s retaining, I assume is way outside of the fold,” Small said for the duration of an visual appearance on NBC News’ “Meet the Push.”

Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, in the same way dismissed Trump’s simply call for the termination of the Constitution in an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” He said, “It’s undoubtedly not reliable with the oath we all consider.”

But Turner sidestepped when asked whether the entrance-runner for the GOP nomination in the 2024 election really should make these types of a statement. Even though he claimed he “vehemently disagrees” with the former president’s statement, Turner did not directly response the concern, even right after host Margaret Brennan pressed repeatedly.

“There is a political course of action that has to go forward before any individual is a entrance-runner or any individual is even a applicant for the celebration,” Turner explained. “And I think, answering your concern, that men and women absolutely are going to choose into consideration a assertion like this as they examine a candidate.”

Rep. David Joyce, R-Ohio, also appeared unwilling to condemn Trump’s remarks through an physical appearance on ABC News’ “This 7 days.”

Joyce mentioned he was unaware of what the former president posted and that “people ended up not interested in looking backwards” when requested to answer to Trump’s assertion.

Pressed on regardless of whether he can support a prospect in 2024 who wishes to suspend the Structure, Joyce said that he will pick “whoever the Republican nominee is” simply because he expects Trump to have many challengers in 2024. He also mentioned the previous president lacks the authority to carry out his “fantasy” of suspending the Structure.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Sick., a vocal opponent of Trump who serves on the Residence Jan. 6 committee, referred to as Trump’s statement “insane.”

“With the former President contacting to toss apart the structure, not a single conservative can legitimately assistance him, and not a one supporter can be referred to as a conservative. This is insane. Trump hates the Constitution,” tweeted Kinzinger, who is retiring from Congress.

In the meantime, Democrats quickly rebuked Trump’s assertion soon after it was posted.

Senate Bulk Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said he “vociferously” condemns Trump’s remarks and urged his colleagues on the two sides of the aisle to do the exact.

“If The us doesn’t extricate itself from Donald Trump and his MAGA ideology, it will undercut our American way of daily life,” Schumer informed reporters throughout a push convention Sunday.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., chair of the Home Intelligence Committee, named out the silence of “constitutional conservatives.”

“I guess a ‘constitutional conservative’ is a single who is conservative in their assist for the structure … when it’s inconvenient,” Schiff reported in a tweet.

September 28, 2022

Montana health officials call out hospitals for too little charity : Shots

Montana health officials are seeking to increase oversight of nonprofit hospitals amid debate about whether they pay their fair share. The proposal comes nine months after a KHN investigation found that some of Montana’s wealthiest hospitals, such as the Billings Clinic, lag behind state and national averages in community giving.

Lynn Donaldson/Bloomberg via Getty Images

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Lynn Donaldson/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Montana health officials are proposing to oversee and set standards for the charitable contributions that nonprofit hospitals make in their communities each year to justify their access to millions of dollars in tax exemptions.

The proposal is part of a package of legislation that the state Department of Public Health and Human Services will ask lawmakers to approve when they convene in January. It comes two years after a state audit called on the department to play more of a watchdog role and nine months after a KHN investigation found some of Montana’s wealthiest hospitals lag behind state and national averages in community giving.

A call for more transparency in what counts as charity

Montana state Sen. Bob Keenan, a Republican who has questioned whether nonprofit hospitals deserve their charity status, calls the proposal a start that could be expanded on later.

“Transparency is the name of the game here,” Keenan says.

The IRS requires nonprofit hospitals to tally what they spend to “promote health” to benefit “the community as a whole.” How hospitals count such contributions to justify their tax exemptions is opaque and varies widely. National researchers who study community benefits have called for tightening standards for what counts toward the requirement.

Hospitals Serving The Poor Struggled During COVID. Wealthy Hospitals Made Millions

Montana is one of the most recent states to consider imposing new rules or increasing oversight of nonprofit hospitals amid questions about whether they pay their fair share. Dr. Vikas Saini, president of the national health care think tank Lown Institute, says that both at a state and local level, people in California are exploring whether to monitor hospital community benefits and enforce new standards. Last year, Oregon initiated a minimum amount that nonprofit hospitals must spend on community benefits. And Massachusetts has updated its community benefits guidelines in recent years, pushing hospitals to give more detailed assessments of how the spending lines up with identified health needs.

Montana hospital industry officials say they want to work with the state to shape the proposed legislation, which they say the industry would support if it doesn’t conflict with federal rules. Saini says that to have an impact, any legislation would have to go beyond federal requirements.

Major tax breaks are at stake

In recent years, more people, like Keenan and Saini, have questioned whether nonprofit hospitals are contributing enough to their communities to deserve the major tax breaks they get while becoming some of the largest businesses in town.

“The hospitals are sort of the pillars of communities, but people are starting to ask these questions,” Saini says.

Saini’s institute reviews hospitals’ giving each year and has found that the majority of nonprofit systems nationwide spend less on what the institute calls “meaningful” benefits than the estimated value of their tax breaks. Actions the institute counts include financial aid to patients and community investments such as food assistance, health education or services offered at a loss, including addiction treatment.

The 2020 Montana audit found that hospitals in the state report benefits vaguely and inconsistently, making it difficult to determine whether their charity status is justified. However, state lawmakers didn’t address the issue in their 2021 biennial legislative session, and a Legislative Audit Division memorandum issued in June found the state health department had “made no meaningful progress” toward developing oversight of nonprofit hospitals’ charitable giving since then.

KHN found that Montana’s nearly 50 nonprofit hospitals directed roughly 8{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} of their total annual expenses, on average, toward community benefits in the tax year that ended in 2019. The national average was 10{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502}.

Nonprofit Hospital That Sued Poor Patients Just Freed Thousands From Debt

In some cases, hospitals’ giving percentages have declined since then. For example, in the tax year that ended in 2019, Logan Health-Whitefish — a small hospital that’s part of the larger Flathead Valley health system — reported that less than 2{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} of its overall spending went toward community benefits. In its latest available documents, for the period ending in 2021, the hospital reported spending less than 1{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} of its expenses on community benefits while it made $15 million more than it spent.

An alternative to oversight?

Logan Health spokesperson Mellody Sharpton says the medical system’s overall community benefit is equal to nearly 9{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} of its spending, reaching across its six hospitals. It also has clinics throughout the valley. “It’s important to consider our organization’s community benefit as a whole,” Sharpton says, “as our facilities collaborate to ensure the appropriate care is provided at the appropriate facility to meet our patients’ health needs.”

State health officials asked lawmakers to allow the agency to draft a bill that would give the health department clear authority to require hospitals to submit annual reports that include data on community benefit and charity care. The measure also would allow the department to develop standards for that spending on community benefit, according to the department’s description of its proposal.

“We see a great need here to move the ball forward,” state health department leader Charlie Brereton told lawmakers in August.

Montana Hospital Association President Rich Rasmussen says his organization wants to work with the health department in honing the legislation but says the definition of what counts as benefits should remain broad so hospitals can respond to their area’s most pressing needs.

Furthermore, he says, hospitals are already working on their own reporting standards. This year, the association created a handbook for members and set a 2023 goal for hospitals to uniformly report their community benefits, Rasmussen says. The association declined to provide a copy of the handbook, saying it would be available to the public once hospitals are trained on how to use it later this fall.

The association also plans to create a website that will serve as a one-stop shop for people who want to know how hospitals are reporting community benefits and addressing local health concerns, among other things.

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Republican state Rep. Jane Gillette says she supports increased health department oversight and the idea behind the association’s website, but doesn’t think the hospital industry should produce that public resource alone. Gillette says she plans to introduce legislation to require hospitals to report community benefits data to a group outside the industry — such as the state — which would then post the information online.

Hospitals have resisted new rules like these in the past

In the past, hospitals have resisted attempts to impose new rules on community benefit spending. In an interview with KHN last year, Jason Smith, then Bozeman Health’s chief advancement officer, said the system supported efforts to improve reporting contributions “outside of new legislation,” adding that hospitals can do better work without “state oversight bodies being placed in the arena with us.”

Asked whether the health system still stands by that statement, Denise Juneau, Bozeman Health’s chief government and community affairs officer, says hospital officials hope any new legislation will align with existing federal guidelines. She says Bozeman Health will continue to work with the Montana Hospital Association to define and provide better information on community benefit, with or without new legislation.

A lawmaker would have to back the state’s proposal by mid-December to keep it alive.

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national, editorially independent project of the Kaiser Family Foundation.