On June 23, 2004, the House Appropriations Committee marked up legislation allocating $335.3 million to LSC for FY 2005. Seventy-two Representatives from both parties had earlier written a letter in support of increasing LSC's appropriation by $13.6 million to $352.4 million. During the committee meeting, Representative José Serrano (D-NY), the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Subcommittee that funds LSC, stated that he had wanted the committee to address the problems caused by the "private money restriction" that imposes federal funding restrictions on non-LSC funds possessed by LSC recipient programs. On the same day, six organizations from Northern Virginia wrote to Representative Frank Wolf (R-VA), Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee that funds LSC, expressing concerns about the private money restriction. The six organizations explained that financing two physically separate offices to engage in restricted and unrestricted work "has imposed unnecessary costs and undue burdens on financially strapped legal aid programs, prevented many low-income individuals and families from receiving necessary legal assistance, and imposed costly government obstacles to private philanthropy." The six organizations that signed this letter are: Legal Services of Northern Virginia, Just Neighbors Ministry, Boat People SOS, the Hispanic Committee of Virginia, Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center, and Northern Virginia Family Services.

Letter from Jim McCrery et al. to Chairman Frank Wolf & Ranking Member José Serrano (June 4, 2004) (on file with the Brennan Center); Letter from Charles Greenfield, Legal Services of Northern Virginia Executive Director, et al. to Chairman Frank Wolf (June 23, 2004) (on file with the Brennan Center), available at http://www.brennancenter.org/programs/pov/dobbins%20national%20campaign/LSNV_letter_to_Wolf_6-22-04.pdf; also based on original reporting by Brennan Center staff.