The House of Representatives passed the Clergy Housing Allowance Clarification Act on a 408-0 vote April 16

Christian Century, May 8, 2002

* The House of Representatives passed the Clergy Housing Allowance Clarification Act on a 408-0 vote April 16. The bill, sponsored by Representative Jim Ramstad (R., Minn.), was intended to preempt a case now before the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco. Legal observers say the proposed legislation may short-circuit an anticipated constitutional challenge to a housing tax exemption enjoyed by American clergy--but future threats to the arrangement still loom.

This perk--provided for in the federal tax code since 1921--has enabled many small and low-income congregations to hire full-time pastors, rabbis or priests. The case now before the appellate court stemmed from an IRS dispute with Rick Warren, a nationally known pastor and author of The Purpose-Driven Church.