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It’s been called “the non-profit killer.” Charitable organizations are mobilizing to defeat a bill being voted on Thursday in the US House of Representatives that could stifle free speech and progressive activism.
HR 9495, aka the “Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act,” would give the Treasury Secretary unilateral power to declare a nonprofit a “terrorist-supporting organization” and strip its tax-exempt status, without due process or disclosing its reasoning.
“The executive branch would be handed a tool it could use to curb free speech, censor nonprofit media outlets, target political opponents, and punish disfavored groups across the political spectrum,” warned the ACLU in a letter signed by hundreds of nonprofits.
The language, tacked on to a more innocuous bill aimed at protecting Americans hostages from amassing tax bills, was pulled from a bill first introduced in the fall of 2023, when college campuses erupted in protest over Israel’s bombardment of Palestine. Lawmakers in May requested information from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on 21 groups, including Students for Justice in Palestine, Open Society Foundations, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Tides Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that they said may have provided funding to groups involved in the protests.
Nonprofits fear an emboldened Trump administration could wield the loosely worded law to go after groups working on everything from refugee and humanitarian aid to racial justice, women’s reproductive rights and even nonprofit news. “The ability to label an organization as a ‘terrorist supporter’ without due process opens up a dangerous path where any dissenting voice could be silenced or marginalized,” said Tranée McDonald of the Interfaith Alliance.
Push back
A vote last week on HR 9495 was defeated on procedural grounds, but the bill stands a good chance of being passed today—or when a Republican-controlled Congress convenes next year. Nonprofits and their supporters have flooded their elected leaders with calls to protest the bill, the kind of law more often seen in repressive governments.
Donald Trump has not been shy about his desire to seek retribution, vowing to use the military if necessary to go after what he has called “the enemy from within.” Ultimate use of the law will depend on Trump’s Treasury pick. Apollo CEO Marc Rowan and former Fed governor Kevin Warsh are the top contenders at the moment.
But the fast tracking of the bill, even before Trump takes the helm, has raised alarms. “If we do not push back against this legislation, it is only a matter of time before the scope of these attacks grows exponentially,” McDonald. “The very core of our democracy is at stake, and we cannot afford to be complacent.”
