How the House of Representatives’ new bill can stop dissent from non-profit organizations.
Yesterday, the House of Representatives voted for a account that President Donald Trump and the executive branch could use to investigate and effectively eliminate certain groups he considers his political enemies. Candidate Trump repeatedly threatened his “enemies” during the campaign, and this bill would target tax-exempt organizations.
Although the legislation received 256 votes, it fell short of the necessary two-thirds threshold needed to suspend the rules and quickly pass the bill. The House of Representatives, however, can at any time bring up the law again under the normal procedure, which requires only a majority vote for passage.
One might ask why any member of Congress would vote for such legislation. One reason is that, on the face of it, the legislation is intended to strip terrorist-supporting organizations of their taxable status. At first glance, most would consider this a laudable goal, and perhaps similar legislation passed in the House of Representatives earlier this year. But the real purpose and implications of this legislation are much more insidious.
As a starting point, non-profit organizations already exist prohibitedat Feder criminal laws, from providing material support to terrorists. And at the same time, the ACLU has a long existence worries given how the executive branch interprets and enforces material support laws, the fact remains that the executive branch has no shortage of tools to review transactions with individuals and entities it deems related to terrorism.
Current issue
And how recent the report The Congressional Research Service makes clear that tax-exempt organizations are already “subject to existing requirements that allow the IRS to revoke the tax-exempt status of an organization that provides material support to a terrorist organization.” The same report notes that the main difference between current IRS rules and the bill is that “revocation under existing authority follows” an IRS audit, notice, administrative appeal and judicial review, while under this legislation , the basics of due process occur only after the harm has been inflicted: “after being identified as an organization that supports terrorist activity.” In other words, the new legislation turns justice on its head and provides only the facade of due process.
Even the proponents of the bill seem to believe that the executive branch already has broad powers with their numbers letters they wrote to the IRS asking them to strip the group of its tax-exempt status. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has himself joined in such calls.
Under this legislation, Donald Trump’s chosen Treasury Secretary would unilaterally designate him as a “terrorist supporter.” They will not be required to provide the non-profit organization with full information on the reasons and evidence for such designation, nor will they be required to provide any evidence challenging their decision to make the designation. This means that a non-profit organization can be left in the dark about what behavior the government considers material support. Essentially, a nonprofit’s tax-exempt status can be revoked before it even has a real chance to present itself to a neutral decision-maker.
While the bill’s authors said the legislation is necessary to avoid what they call “time-consuming bureaucratic process”, in reality they are trying to evade basic due process. The executive branch will be able to use the stigma that would come with such an appointment, the legal fees and costs it would incur, combined with the likely loss of donors who avoid controversy, to stifle dissent and shut down speech. And while the body’s claims may ultimately fail under scrutiny in court, the reputational and financial costs of this designation could spell the functional end of the accused nonprofit before it even gets there. Many non-profit organizations may cease operations and attorneys to avoid such punishment.
And although current efforts are clearly very focused on campus protests regarding the situation in the Gazait’s not hard to imagine the Trump administration using these powers to attack and harass nonprofits in a much broader set of circumstances. The cooling effects can be huge. Any organization that criticizes government policies or powerful interests could potentially be arbitrarily stripped of its tax-exempt status by being labeled “terrorist-supporting” as part of a wider far-right assault on democracy and the right to protest
The question Congress must ask is whether the time has come to grant the executive branch new, unnecessary, broad powers that are easily abused. This legislation provides no real protection against an executive branch led by Trump and intent on using executive power to effectively shut down organizations with which he disagrees. On the contrary, it is an open invitation to abuse.
This time, the bill’s supporters have attached it to legislation that makes clear that Americans taken hostage by foreign governments or terrorist groups should not face penalties from the IRS for failing to pay taxes while they are being held hostage. Granted, this is a rare policy that no one in Congress seems to oppose, and that passed The Senate unanimously earlier this year. The fastest way for hostage tax relief to become law is for the House to pass a version that does not include unrelated and dangerous provisions aimed at nonprofits. It can then be immediately sent to the president for his signature.
And that’s the approach Congress should take instead of giving the incoming Trump administration a tool it can use to stifle free speech, attack political opponents, and punish dissident groups.
We cannot retreat
We now face a second Trump presidency.
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The day is dark, the forces are building tenaciously, but it’s too late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is just the time when artists go to work. No time for despair, no room for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we make language. This is how civilizations heal.”
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Katrina Vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, Nation
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