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

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 before 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 had won the presidency. “And we, as members of Congress, have a responsibility to make sure that taxpayers are not subsidizing terrorism,” the Missouri lawmaker 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.

According to the bill, a new category of “organizations supporting terrorism” will be created. Congressional Research Service analysis the previous version of the legislation. 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. Nonprofit organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union they said that the bill does not require the Secretary of the Treasury to disclose all of the evidence used to make the appointment.

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.”

IN joint statement Along with the Independent Sector, the National Council of Nonprofits and the United Forum of Philanthropy, the Council on Foundations also said the bill would shift the burden of proof to the nonprofit, and even if the organization is ultimately cleared, the nonprofit “risks irreparable harm to their operations and reputation “

If it were to become law, the bill could apply to a range of nonprofit organizations, including membership organizations, unions and private foundations.

A version of the bill was first introduced after the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the House passed an earlier version of the bill in April, including support from some Democrats.

The bill also came up for a vote last week but fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to suspend the rules.

Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian-American representative in Congress, said Thursday ahead of the vote that this would be her third time voting against the bill.

“I don’t care who the president of the United States is,” she said. “This is a dangerous and unconstitutional bill that would allow unchecked government to target nonprofits as political enemies and shut them down without due process.”

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Talia Beaty reported from New York. ___

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