Members of Congress, Experts Sound Alarm on GOP Attacks on Nonprofits

Washington, D.C.- Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee gaveled out their latest hearing aimed at nonprofits, accusing them of being influenced by foreign actors. But this hearing had nothing to do with oversight – and the Majority made no attempt to explore the well-documented foreign entanglements tied to the Trump family and their network.

Instead the Majority specifically ignored the billions of dollars of foreign money flowing into the Trump organizations in pursuit of their political goal: targeting their political opponents.

While Ways & Means Republicans ignored the President’s well-documented self-enrichment through foreign dealings, Ranking Member Richard Neal and other Democrats on the committee highlighted this hearing as the latest tactic in the Trump Administration’s dangerous campaign to weaponize the government against perceived political enemies and dissenters. 

KEY QUOTES: 

Ranking Member Richard Neal:

“We need a serious and good-faith conversation about corruption and foreign influence that’s bending politics to benefit the well-connected and costing taxpayers. What Republicans are doing is a disingenuous, cherry-picked exercise to legitimize the White House’s crusade to silence the opposition by branding anyone who disagrees with them as a threat, or even a domestic terrorist.”

"We’ve already seen the President weaponize the power of government to target his perceived opponents and enemies. We can’t be party to another performative effort that continues to ignore the President’s abuses."

Rep. Lloyd Doggett:

“No tax-exempt organization has been more vulnerable or more welcoming to malign foreign influence than Donald Trump.”

"Unlike every modern president before him, he refused to divest his business interests or place them in a blind trust. Instead, he effectively erected a giant sign on himself, his family and the White House: 'we're open for business.'"

“In America, We do not punish critics. We do not crown kings. And we must not sell our democracy to the highest bidder.”

Rep. Mike Thompson:

“Foreign malign influence in the United States is real, it’s serious, and it needs meaningful oversight — but I don’t think that’s what this hearing is about.”

“Using the tax code as a tool to suppress opposing perspectives would be unconstitutional.”

“If we're truly concerned about foreign influence, that concern cannot be partisan, and it cannot conveniently stop at the door of the most powerful office in the world.”

Rep. Linda Sánchez:

“If we're going to have a plea for transparency and for oversight and for stopping the malign influence of foreign money in our politics and our government, then we have to start from the top down. You cannot apply one set of rules to one set of people and a completely different set of rules, or no rules, to somebody else.”

Robert Weissman, Public Citizen:

“The overwhelming problem of improper influence in American politics today stems from two things: the fundamental failure to enforce the existing tools we have … and the President’s business and donor relationships that compromise them in a way that probably has no parallel in American history.”

We can and we should have effective instruments to address undo improper foreign influence. They have to be administered robustly, but also fairly … and without regard to point of view. Right now, however, the Trump administration is actively degrading those institutions, rules and policies, while simultaneously threatening to use them against its political adversaries.”