Bush, Cheney Release Information About Charitable Donations

President Bush and Vice President Cheney and their wives have released information about their contributions to charities last year.

President Bush and the first lady, Laura Bush, gave a total of $75,560 to churches and charitable organizations, some of which were involved in disaster relief efforts following Hurricane Katrina. The Bush gifts represented 12 percent of their taxable income of $618,694.

Vice President Cheney and his wife, Lynne Cheney, donated $6,869,655 to three organizations from the exercise of stock options and from Mrs. Cheney's book royalties.

The White House said that the organizations receiving gifts from President and Mrs. Bush included the American Red Cross (hurricane relief); the Archdiocese of New Orleans Catholic Charities; the Combined Federal Campaign, the federal government's annual charity drive; Martha's Table, a soup kitchen in Washington; the Mississippi Food Network, and the Salvation Army (hurricane relief and Pakistan earthquake relief).

The White House did not say how much money the Bushes contributed to specific organizations.

Mr. and Mrs. Cheney had announced in 2001 that they had arranged gifts of stock options, to be handled by an independent administrator (and gifts of money the Cheneys had received for corporate board service), that would eventually benefit Capital Partners for Education, which provides educational help to needy high-school-age children in the Washington area; George Washington University Medical Faculty Associates, in Washington, for what is now called the Richard B. and Lynne V. Cheney Cardiovascular Institute; and the University of Wyoming, for the benefit of the University of Wyoming Foundation.

In its announcement today, the White House did not specify how much money the Cheneys donated to each institution.

But The Chronicle (March 23) recently reported that the Cheneys donated $1.3-million to Capital Partners for Education and $2.7-million to George Washington University.