The House passes a bill that would allow the Treasury Department to target nonprofits it determines are supporting terrorism.

TALIYA BITI and FARNOSH AMIRI

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed legislation that would give the Treasury Department unilateral authority to strip tax-exempt status from nonprofits it says support terrorism, alarming civil liberties groups that a second Trump presidency could use it to punish political opponents. .

The bill passed by a vote of 219 to 184, with most of the support coming from Republicans who accused Democrats of changing course in their support for the “common sense” proposal only after Donald Trump was elected to a second term earlier this month.

Speaking on the House floor ahead of the vote, Rep. Jason Smith, the Republican chairman of the House Budget Committee, said his colleagues on the other side of the aisle would still support the bill if Vice President Kamala Harris wins the United States presidential election. And we, as members of Congress, have a responsibility to ensure that taxpayers are not subsidizing terrorism,” the Missouri legislator said. “It’s very, very simple.”

But the proposal has raised concerns among a number of nonprofits, which say it could be used to target organizations, including news outlets, universities and civil society groups, with which the incoming presidential administration disagrees. They say it doesn’t provide the groups with enough due process.

“This bill is an authoritarian play by Republicans to expand sweeping executive powers, persecute political enemies and suppress political dissent,” Pramila Jayapal, chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said on the House floor. vote.

Critics also believe that supporting certain terrorist groups is unnecessary because it already violates U.S. law. The proposal, which now heads to the Democratic-controlled Senate where its fate is unknown, would also delay tax filing deadlines for Americans held hostage or illegally detained abroad.

The bill would create a new category of “terrorist-supporting organizations,” according to an analysis of a previous version of the law by the Congressional Research Service. This category is defined as any organization that the Secretary of the Treasury determines has provided material support to a terrorist organization in the past three years.

“We believe this law is over the top,” said Jenn Holcomb, vice president of government relations for the Council on Foundations. “This would allow the Secretary of the Treasury to designate a 501c nonprofit organization as a terrorist organization at his discretion. And our concern is that this is not enough to really ensure that the nonprofit understands the rationale that the secretary has outlined as such.”

The bill would give a nonprofit organization found to be a “terrorist supporter” 90 days to appeal the designation. Nonprofits such as the American Civil Liberties Union said the bill would not require the Treasury secretary to disclose all of the evidence that was used to make the designation.

The bill’s text specifies how the Treasury Department must provide “a description of such material support or resources to the extent consistent with national security and law enforcement interests.”