Over 50 House Democrats voted to give President-elect Donald Trump‘s Treasury secretary more power over nonprofit organizations.
The House voted against the GOP-led Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act Tuesday, with 256 representatives voting in favor, shy of the 270 needed to pass the bill. Over 200 Republicans along with 52 Democrats supported the bill, and one Republican joined the 144 Democrats who opposed it.
The bill would give secretaries of the United States Treasury the power to designate nonprofit organizations as “terrorist-supporting” and, thus, strip those groups of their tax-exempt status. The bill’s passage would apply the amendments made in it to taxable years after its enactment, including those of the incoming Trump administration.
The current version of the bill, which Representative Claudia Tenney introduced, is paired with a provision that offers tax relief to Americans who are “unlawfully or wrongfully detained abroad, or held hostage abroad.”
The American Civil Liberties Union criticized the bill as “a new tool [the Trump administration] could use to stifle free speech, target political opponents, and punish groups that disagree with them.”
In a blog post urging members of Congress to kill the bill, Kia Hamadanchy, ACLU’s senior policy counsel, said, “The freedom to dissent without fear of government retribution is a vital part of any well-functioning democracy, which is why Congress must block H.R. 9495 before it’s too late.”
Under the bill, once an organization is notified about its “terrorist supporting” designation, it would have 90 days to appeal before it is stripped of its 501(c)(3) status.
The law would not require Treasury officials to explain the reasoning behind the decision or for the department to provide evidence.
Trump has begun filling his cabinet but has not announced who will lead his Department of Treasury. Billionaire investor John Paulson took himself out as a possible pick on Tuesday, suggesting that investor Scott Bessent or Trump’s transition co-chair Howard Lutnick could succeed current Secretary Janet Yellen.
The bill comes as the war in Gaza continues into its 13th month. At least 43,603 Palestinians have been killed and another 102,929 wounded since the war broke out on October 7, 2023, last year, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel on the day of the Hamas-led attacks, and more than 200 people were taken hostage.
Opponents of the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act have warned that the proposed broad authority to deem an organization as supporting “terrorism” has raised fears that the power will be wielded against nonprofits that are pro-Palestinian.
Representative Jamaal Bowman, a Democrat who lost his primary race earlier this year and will be leaving Capitol Hill come January, warned Tuesday that the bill “will sink us further into authoritarianism.”
“It is an extremely dangerous bill that would give the government unlimited power to stop the work of humanitarian groups and target political enemies. All without transparency or evidence,” Bowman, who is among the most vocal pro-Palestinian voices in Congress, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Bowman’s primary race was largely seen as a referendum on his criticisms of Israel. Pro-Israel groups dumped nearly $15 million into the race in an effort to oust Bowman.
“The unchecked powers granted by H.R. 9495 are ripe for abuse and any member of Congress who votes yes on it cannot honestly claim to support peace, justice, and freedom of speech,” Bowman said.
Actor Cynthia Nixon, a former candidate for New York governor, also called the bill a “five alarm fire” and urged her followers on X to persuade their members of Congress to block it.
Opponents have warned that passing the bill would kill a nonprofit’s ability to function, as it could prohibit their ability to fundraise, prevent them from getting banks to service them and imperil their work in war zones or other hostile environments.
“Charitable organizations, especially those who work in settings where designated terrorist groups operate, already undergo strict internal due diligence and risk mitigation measures,” the Charity & Security Network said in a statement last year. “As the prohibition on material support to foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) already exists, and is applicable to U.S. nonprofits, this proposed legislation is redundant and unnecessary.”
Here is the full list of Democrats who voted to support the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act:
- Colin Allred
- Nikki Budzinski
- Yadira Caraveo
- Ed Case
- Kathy Castor
- Jim Costa
- Angie Craig
- Henry Cuellar
- Sharice Davids
- Don Davis
- Debbie Dingell
- Lois Frankel
- Jared Golden
- Vicente Gonzalez
- Josh Gottheimer
- Josh Harder
- Jahana Hayes
- Steny Hoyer
- Marcy Kaptur
- Greg Landsman
- Susie Lee
- Mike Levin
- Kathy Manning
- Lucy McBath
- Grace Meng
- Gwen Moore
- Jared Moskowitz
- Frank Mrvan
- Donald Norcross
- Frank Pallone
- Jimmy Panetta
- Chris Pappas
- Marie Gluesenkamp Perez
- Pat Ryan
- Adam Schiff
- Brad Schneider
- Hillary Scholten
- Kim Schrier
- Brad Sherman
- Elissa Slotkin
- Eric Sorensen
- Greg Stanton
- Haley Stevens
- Marilyn Strickland
- Tom Suozzi
- Emilia Sykes
- Shri Thanedar
- Norma Torres
- Ritchie Torres
- Juan Vargas
- Gabe Vasquez
- Debbie Wasserman Schultz
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