House Passes Bill That Could Give Trump Admin. Power to Shut Down Any Nonprofit 

Just weeks after Donald Trump’s election, the House has advanced a bill that could give his administration a truly jarring amount of power. That bill is H.R. 9495, the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act, which allows the secretary of the treasury to designate any nonprofit—from NPR to abortion funds—as a “terrorist-supporting organization” and revoke its tax-exempt status. By a 219-184 margin on Thursday afternoon, the House passed the bill that civil liberties advocates are calling the “nonprofit killer.”

H.R. 9495, introduced by New York Republican Claudia Tenney, cites the threat of “pro-Hamas” organizations and activists protesting Israel’s genocide in Gaza since October 2023. The bill is clearly meant to target pro-Palestine organizations and Arab-American-led groups, as well as really anyone who’s critical of Israel. Faced with crushing attacks on their rights to dissent, pro-Palestine student activists on college campuses have relied on organizations like the ACLU or Palestine Legal to defend them—H.R. 9495 could severely strain or potentially shut down organizations like this. The bill threatens to give the treasury department unilateral power to investigate and shutter these groups, effectively giving whoever is president the power to shut down their political enemies. Despite its clearly diabolical nature, H.R. 9495 has enjoyed bipartisan success in the House thanks to aggressive efforts by the pro-Israel lobby.

Here are the 15 Democrats who voted in favor of HR 9495 — which would empower the Treasury Secretary to revoke nonprofit tax status of orgs based on subjective judgement they’re “terrorist-supporting.”

Down from the 52 who supported it last week:

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— Prem Thakker ツ (@premthakker.bsky.social) November 21, 2024 at 9:51 AM

Last week, when H.R. 9495 was fast-tracked and required a two-thirds majority, it narrowly missed this threshold, despite 52 House Democrats voting for it. But on Thursday, the House reintroduced H.R. 9495 under normal rules, meaning it needed only a simple majority, which it received. But this time, just 15 Democrats supported it in the wake of a significant public pressure campaign. The 15 Democrats who continued to support it include Reps. Colin Allred of Texas, Henry Cuellar of Texas, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz of Florida, and Tom Suozzi of New York.

House Democrats like Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas, who once supported the bill, are raising alarms about how dangerous this law would be in the hands of someone as vengeful as Trump. They’re right—but, as Rep. Rashida Tlaib argued on the House floor on Thursday, no presidential administration should have this power. “I don’t care who the president is,” Tlaib said. “This is a dangerous and an unconstitutional bill that would allow unchecked power to target nonprofit organizations as political enemies and shut them down without due process.” Last week, she also warned that the bill would “give Trump the power to shut down any nonprofit he wants. The NAACP, ACLU, Planned Parenthood, no organization would be safe.”

The bill was first introduced and passed overwhelmingly in April amid rising protests across the country condemning Israel’s genocide but ultimately died in the Senate. 

“The potential for abuse” under H.R. 9495 “is immense as 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,” the ACLU states in a letter addressed to Congress on Monday. The letter is signed by nearly 300 other nonprofit organizations representing a range of causes. 

It’s not hard to see Trump and his treasury department going after nonprofit newsrooms as part of his ongoing war on the press, which has included suggesting journalists should be shot. And, as I wrote last week, given his close relationship with the anti-abortion movement, it’s also not hard to see the administration going after organizations like Planned Parenthood or abortion funds. Republicans have spent years smearing abortion as “genocide” and “worse than slavery,” or comparing it to the Holocaust. Abortion funds and other reproductive justice organizations have been among the most vocal critics of Israel. Losing their tax-exempt status at a time when abortion funds are already spending historic amounts post-Roe would be devastating for abortion access.

Next, H.R. 9495 heads to the Senate and civil liberties organizations are rallying to get people to call their senators and ask them to reject the bill.