The House of Representatives is voting on House BIll 9495, a bill that would unilaterally give authority to strip a non-profit of its status if the organization is deemed to be supporting a terrorist group. The bill was defeated last week by House Democrats (even though 52 Democrats supported it), because it did not obtain the two-thirds majority required. However, the bill advanced to a full vote on Thursday, where it passed with a majority. It will now be voted on in the Senate.
House Bill 9495 would give the US secretary of the treasury the power to strip nonprofits of their tax-exempt status if the organization was deemed to be “terrorist-suppporting.” A loose definition of what constitutes as terrorism supporting would allow the acting presidency to selectively and arbitrarily target nonprofits that are viewed as political enemies. This measure follows a long history of deeming nonprofit organizations as terrorist supporting to demonize advocates of problems that are caused by US imperialism.
The bill is significant because it allows the president themselves to target and silence groups that the president does not agree with, and the nonprofit groups have no means of challenging a terrorist-supporting label. Major critics of the bill are arguing that it will give the incoming Trump administration power that they should not have; yet, the bill was introduced with bipartisan support amidst the campus protests this and last year surrounding the Gaza genocide. ACLU told the Nonprofit Quarterly that “the fear is that this is the sort of thing that a Trump administration could weaponize against civil society broadly—not just organizations that might be involved in protests regarding the conflict in Gaza, but civil society writ large.”
The bipartisan support the bill had previous to Trump winning the 2024 election is important to note – Democrats enthusiastically endorsed labeling groups that are providing support to Palestine as terrorist, but now are scrambling to ensure that Trump and his administration won’t have the authoritarian power to strip organizations of their status because of political disagreements. The carceral state is known for using the terrorist-supporting label to shut down political dissent and to create political prisoners.
You can call your senators today to urge them to vote no on the bill.
