Trump Won't Get To Unperson 'Terrorist-Supporting' Nonprofits (Which Is All Lib Nonprofits Obviously)

No of course they don't mean the NRA!

Photo by Volkan Olmez on Unsplash

The House of Representatives last night failed to pass a bill that would have given presidents the power to revoke nonprofits’ tax exempt status by invoking the magic words “terrorist supporting organization.” The bill looked to be on the way to passage until Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) led opposition to it, citing the potential for Donald Trump to use the power arbitrarily. It’s already a crime for Americans and American organizations to support terrorism, but this thing was considered a great way to get back at groups supporting campus protests against the war in Gaza.

The “Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act,” which doesn’t even work out to be a snappy acronym, would give the Treasury Department unilateral power to remove tax exempt nonprofit status from any organization it might slap with the “terrorist supporting” label. Obviously, not a good tool to hand to a guy who regularly says anyone who opposes him is an enemy of America — and honestly, probably not a good idea even in non-crazy administrations.

The bill did get a majority of votes — 256 yeas to 145 nays, mostly from Democrats and one Republican — but that didn’t meet the two-thirds majority needed to “suspend the rules” in the House and put it quickly to a full vote. If you’re represented by any of the 52 Democrats who did support the bill, please contact their office to say HELL NO WHAT ARE YOU THINKING? only in much more polite terms.

A previous version of the bill actually passed the House with bipartisan support in May, although even then critics were pointing out it could be applied unfairly to quiet nonprofit journalism outfits critical of Middle East policy. That version has been stuck in committee in the Senate, so the new version, HR 9495, was introduced in September, adding a new provision that would provide tax exemptions for Americans held hostage or unjustly imprisoned in other countries.

Doggett said in a floor speech before the vote Tuesday, “All of us support stopping terrorism. [… But] if he is on a march to make America fascist, we do not need to supply Donald Trump with any additional weapons to accomplish his ill purpose.”

Here’s how the bill would have worked, as explained by The Intercept:

Under the provisions of the bill, the Treasury secretary would have been authorized to unilaterally designate any nonprofit group deemed to be a supporter of terrorism, giving the group just 90 days to respond to a notice. After those 90 days, if appeals were unsuccessful, the group would be stripped of its tax-exempt 501(c)(3) status. Such a measure would likely cripple any nonprofit, and even if an appeal was successful, critics said, it would leave a mark that could scare away donors.

Not surprisingly, both versions of the bill have been opposed by civil liberties groups, which all pointed out that protesting a war isn’t the same as rooting for terrorists. Supporters of the bill insisted that groups would have nothing to worry about unless they really truly supported terrorism, so why are you free speech people supporting Hamas, huh? The ACLU, which led some 130 groups opposing the legislation, celebrated yesterday’s vote, warning that it also could have stripped nonprofit status from news outlets and universities too, although plenty of Republicans no doubt nodded and said that was the point.

With Trump Regime 2: Electric Boogaloo suddenly on the horizon, several Democrats who had previously supported the bill changed sides, including Rep. Don Beyer (D-Virginia), who noted in a House speech before the vote that supporting terrorism is already a crime, but mostly emphasized that the potential for abuse by Trump was the main reason for his new thinking:

“In the hands of a responsible government, the powers provided with this bill are redundant and duplicative. […] Sometimes we have great presidents, and sometimes we do not, and under the leadership of an unscrupulous or an authoritarian president, it’s not hard to imagine how that administration could use the powers in this bill to hinder or dismantle organizations they don’t like.”

Which of course is what opponents of the bill were saying before the election too, but sometimes having a wannabe dictator planning an all-beef menu for the White House cafeteria will focus a legislator’s mind.

The bill could conceivably return during the lame duck session, but with Democrats still running the Senate, it’s not likely to be a threat for now. Republicans are likely to bring it back in the next session, especially if they keep control of the House (just 12 seats have yet to be decided as of right now, and the GOP is very close to the 218 seats they’ll need for a majority).

Hell, the prospect of allowing Donald Trump the power to use the tax code to shut down nonprofits he doesn’t like might even be enough to overcome the usual Republican chaos.

[Intercept / Newsweek / ACLU]

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