From Sunday to Tuesday, Michael Phillips joined 100 students from around the country and descended on Washington, D.C., to lobby U.S. Representatives in support of the Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act of 2009.
Phillips, a fourth-year economics and international development studies student and member of Alpha Epsilon Pi, was among 100 students selected from a pool of 500 undergraduate students who had been nominated by their national fraternity organizations.
The bill looks to improve safety and affordability of fraternity and sorority housing by allowing tax-exempt charitable or educational organizations to make grants, which certain tax-exempt social clubs can, in turn, use to improve collegiate housing property.
According to Phillips, while 39 percent of Greek housing nationwide has been retrofitted with fire sprinklers, the improvement has taken place in only three of the 20 fraternity houses at UCLA.
This year, the North-American Interfraternity Conference convened with a focus on garnering Congressional support for the Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act.
The event began with two days of training in the art of lobbying by Washington, D.C., firm Patton Boggs.
Following the training, Phillips was paired with a member from San Jose State University’s Alpha Zeta Delta Sorority based on their regional similarities. On April 20, the pair, along with AZD alumni and professional lobbyists, held meetings with staff members for five California Representatives including Democrats Joe Baca and Jackie Speier and Republican John Campbell.
According to Phillips, even with the positive reception in his meetings, the bill still faces the same problems that have plagued it in the past.
As a tax bill, the Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act would cost $148 million over the next 10 years.
However, because of the minimal cost, legislatures are not able to give the bill as much attention as other more costly proposals, which causes the bill to be pushed off the docket each legislative session.
While similar bills have failed to gain the needed attention in Congress, the Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act of 2009 currently has 29 co-sponsors in the Senate and 185 co-sponsors in the House and is currently being considered by the Senate Committee on Finance and the House Committee on Ways and Means.
According to Phillips, because of the minor cost of the bill, the hope is to have the Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act attached to a larger tax bill so it would have a better chance of getting legislative attention.
While congressional approval has failed to result in action, the bill is garnering support from students as well.
“I feel it’s a great idea to add such safety measures to fraternity houses,” said first-year economics student Nicolas Waizman, also a member of AEPi.
“Many of these houses attract large numbers of people, and it’s a public concern that in case of emergency everyone comes out safely. It is unfair to deny these students the same rights as those living in dorms.”
With 250,000 students living in fraternities and sororities nationwide, a significant portion of the college student population is being denied funding that is necessary for upgrades and improvements to their housing, according to Phillips.
This prohibition stems from the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, which establishes that universities may utilize tax-deductible charitable contributions for the improvement or alteration of student facilities. Fraternities and sororities, on the other hand, are limited to using such contributions only for educational purposes.
According to a letter that the Capital Fraternal Caucus recently sent to congressional representatives in order to earn support for the bill, the tax code’s arbitrary distinction means that fraternities and sororities cannot use tax-deductible funds to employ the same life-saving measures as colleges and universities.
The North-American Interfraternity Conference, founded in 1909, represents nearly 350,000 undergraduate students in 73 national and international fraternities by pushing for legislation that would lead to “enrichment of the fraternity experience, advancement and growth of the fraternity community, and enhancement of the educational mission of the host institutions.”