Nonprofits Beware

State of the Sector Part Two

Well…that was fast.

Lawmakers in Congress are working on legislation that would give the Treasury Department sweeping power to revoke nonprofit status from organizations defined as “terrorist-supporting.” This bill, H.R. 9495, could come for any nfp. What would it look like, you ask? Well, how we define terrorist-supporting? How will we define it moving forward?

There is stochastic terrorism — a meaningful term that is also not entirely objective.

There is domestic terrorism — see above.

There is cyber terrorism, of course.

Trump has shown a propensity to target Muslims in his own vague definition of terrorism.

Under H.R. 9495, any tax-exempt organization that criticizes the government is considered “terrorist supporting.” It’s not good, friends. This bill will almost certainly be grounded in racist and transphobic ideation. It could also serve, quite simply, to punish dissent.

It’s real.

The so-called “non-profit killer” bill would give the government broad powers to sanction organizations. The measure “would be profoundly damaging to all sorts of non-profits”, said the American Civil Liberties Union federal policy counsel, Kia Hamadanchy. “There’s the stigma of being called a terrorist-supporting organization, there are banks who may not want to transact with you once you have that status, there are donors who may not want to give you money because they’re afraid, themselves, of being called supporters of terrorism.”

The bill, titled Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act, or HR 9495, passed the House of Representatives last week after members fast-tracked it by suspending House rules, which would have required a supermajority to pass, this time requiring only a simple majority. See who voted how HERE.

“Many of us are deeply concerned that this will be misused by the incoming president, who has labeled mainstream organizations in this country as ‘terrorist’ organizations and he will be able to use this, if it ever became law, to deny organizations their tax-exempt status, to punish them, to try to silence them, without any due process, without any hearing, without any nothing,” said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA). “This is a dangerous pathway this committee is paving for us to go down.” 

A number of groups are mobilizing to stop this legislation and prevent it going into law. Like the ACLU and Americans for the Arts. This is an important issue, albiet one that, for the moment, is unlikely to pass the Senate. It won’t go away and it tests the solidaristic qualities of nonprofits and those we serve. How will we respond?