Markup Alert: House Tax Bill Allows Political Appointees to Accuse Any Organization of Supporting Terrorism without Evidence
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, May 12th, 2025
CONTACT
Caitlin Legacki, press@stopgovernmentcensorship.org
Markup Alert: House Tax Bill Allows Political Appointees to Accuse Any Organization of Supporting Terrorism without Evidence
Legislation Would Allow Any President to Target Organizations That Don’t Fall in Line
Washington, DC — In draft language released Monday afternoon, the House Ways and Means Committee intends to grant the Secretary of Treasury the ability to accuse any nonprofit of being a “terrorist supporting organization” without providing evidence. Such accusations would trigger a process that would jeopardize their tax exempt status and risk these organizations being de-banked. The language released Monday is extremely similar to HR 9495, introduced in the 118th Congress, that generated significant pushback from the nonprofit community in late 2024.
In recent weeks, conservatives have highlighted the many ways this power could be weaponized against churches, anti-abortion groups and gun rights groups when Democrats are next in power.
The following is a statement from AAGC Executive Director Cole Leiter:
“This is an unprecedented power grab that gives any administration — Republican or Democratic — the power to punish any group that doesn’t fully align with its political agenda. Under this proposal, political appointees in the Treasury Department would have new authority to designate an organization ‘terrorist supporting,’ triggering a process to strip churches, food banks, and charities serving their communities across this country of their tax-exempt status, risk them being de-banked, and destroy their reputation in the long term.
“Americans trust nonprofits because they work tirelessly in their own communities and around the world to feed the hungry, care for the elderly, and support families in crisis. This plan puts all of that at risk—and it could be wielded by whatever administration comes next, Republican or Democratic.
“Responsible lawmakers from both parties must stand up for the nonprofits that serve their communities and reject this dangerous overreach before it becomes law.”
Section 112209 (p380) contains the language from H.R.9495 that would give the Treasury Secretary the ability to assert any nonprofit organization is “terrorist supporting,” which would then trigger a process that would jeopardize their tax exempt status, risk them being de-banked, and result in long term reputational impacts.
The House Ways and Means Committee has scheduled a markup of the bill for tomorrow.
BACKGROUND
Since taking office, the current Administration has launched increasingly flagrant attacks on free speech, non-profits, and their perceived political opponents. These include:
Targeting law firms as a form of retribution and to signal to any other firms that opposition will not be tolerated
The FBI asking Citibank to freeze several accounts of Biden-era climate grant recipients without any proof of wrongdoing
Threatening to revoke Harvard University’s tax-exempt status and accusing it of supporting terrorists without any evidence
The Government Censorship Agenda is not limited to executive action. Legislation introduced in the previous Congress sends a clear signal on the legislative priorities for expanding government overreach against political opponents. These proposed bills would:
Allow the Treasury Secretary to designate non profits as “terrorist supporting organizations,” without justification, and suspend their tax-exempt status without due process (H.R.9495/H.R.6408 - Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act)
Revoke the tax-exempt status of nonprofits or advocacy organizations who make political contributions after receiving donations from non-citizens, while creating a loophole to allow contributions from foreign corporations (H.R. 8314 - No Foreign Election Interference Act)
Allow the federal government to insert itself in state ballot initiatives and determine who is allowed to fund those campaigns – creating loopholes for foreign corporations while blocking foreign individuals (H.R.3229 - Stop Foreign Funds in Elections Act)
Force tax-exempt organizations that receive even a single dollar from non-citizens to choose between advocacy for their members or foregoing those donations (H.R.4563 - ACE Act)
Enact significant barriers to voter registration and upend mail and online voter registration systems, disenfranchising millions of eligible Americans (H.R. 22 - SAVE Act → The House passed this bill in April. It now goes to the Senate)
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