By Kevin Drawbaugh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - At the 11th hour of a scramble by the U.S. Congress to keep the federal government funded and open, Republicans in the House of Representatives on Wednesday called for making a handful of temporary tax breaks for charitable giving permanent.
The last-minute move, led by Republican Representative Dave Camp, drew criticism from Democrats. They said his plan would add $11 billion to the national debt because it offers no new sources of tax revenue to offset the drain on the federal budget that making the tax breaks permanent would impose.
Camp, who will retire from Congress within weeks, urged passage of a bill dealing with a tax break for donating property for conservation; one for donating food inventories; and one for making distributions from retirement plans to charities.
"This legislation will ultimately increase charitable giving by making these policies permanent and enabling charities to better serve those in need," Camp said in a statement.
His bill was debated on the House floor on Wednesday evening. A vote was called for, but was postponed.
The White House has said it "strongly opposes" Camp's proposal on budgetary grounds and if the bill were presented for Democratic President Barack Obama's signature, his senior advisers would recommend that he veto it.
All three tax breaks are now part of a package of dozens of temporary tax measures, known as the "extenders," which Congress historically has renewed every year or two.
The Republican-controlled House last week voted 378-46 to renew all 55 extenders, postponing further debate on them until 2015 and clearing a major hurdle in a race to develop a stopgap spending plan to prevent a government shutdown.
The Democratic-controlled Senate has not voted on the extenders renewal, but its approval was widely expected.
The renewal of the extenders, most of which expired at the end of 2013, was retroactive to Jan. 1, 2014, meaning taxpayers could claim the tax breaks for the 2014 tax year, including the charitable giving provisions being singled out by Camp.
"This House has already taken action to provide for the three provisions included in this bill for this year's tax returns as part of the broad extender bill that passed last week," said Democratic Representative Sander Levin.
He is the top Democrat on the House's tax committee; Camp is the top Republican. "For this tax season these provisions are in effect. There's no doubt about that," Levin said.
(Additional reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Bernard Orr)