H.R.9495 and the Impact on Nonprofits

by | Nov 19, 2024 | Advocacy, Advocate

U.S. Capitol building with American flag flying and the text H.R.9495 to the right

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The Nonprofit Association of Washington (NAWA) is tracking H.R.9495. The “Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act,” is a bill in Congress that has received renewed attention this week after failing to gain ⅔ of votes last week. 

H.R.9495 has the potential to endanger nonprofits and the work that we do by allowing the government to terminate the tax-exempt status of nonprofits by way of the Secretary of Treasury who would have full authority to designate charitable organizations as “a terrorist-supporting organization”, without the requirement of sharing the evidence or reasoning to the accused nonprofit and the public at large. It places the burden of proof on the nonprofit organization being accused and effectively eliminates due process by only allowing an organization 90 days to prove its innocence before having its tax-exempt status revoked.

If HR9495 passes, charitable organizations that are involved in issues around women’s reproductive rights, serving immigrants and refugees, working on issues related to wars and victims of wars, and even issues around equity, could potentially be deemed as terrorists or domestic terrorists.

This upcoming Thursday, H.R.9495 will head to the House of Representatives to be voted on again and only needs a simple majority to pass. We collectively must take action to prevent this congressional bill from passing.

H.R.9495 goes much further than the provisions to extend tax deadlines for those wrongfully detained or held hostage overseas; it supports the dangerous opportunity to utilize partisan politics to subjectively overreach and abuse the authority of the Secretary of Treasury office to suppress dissent and protest of the actions of the incoming administration.

As nonprofits, we have the right under the 1st amendment to protest and advocate for or against legislation that will directly impact our sector, and with this bill; this right is at risk. We need your support to mobilize your communities to contact their representatives and encourage them to vote NO on H.R. 9495.

Here are things you can do to help defeat this bill:

Join 35,000 Americans who support nonprofits and sign the petition against H.R.9495 at https://actionnetwork.org/forms/denounce-the-52-democrats-who-voted-to-enable-trumps-attacks-on-nonprofits 

Call, email, and even tag our representatives on social media who voted YES last week every day through this Thursday, November 21st at 202-224-3121 and encourage them to vote NO. 

Those representatives are: 

Below you will find a template script for phone calls and a template email you can use.

Engage your board, volunteers, and community members to reach out passionately and personally to encourage our representatives to vote NO on H.R. 9495.

——————————————————–

Sample Email Script

SUBJECT LINE: Vote NO on HR 9495

Dear Representative [ Name of Representative],

The U.S. House of Representatives is preparing to reconsider H.R. 9495, legislation that would empower the U.S. Treasury Secretary to unilaterally deem nonprofits as terrorist-supporting organizations and revoke their tax exemptions with little due process. This bill failed to pass the House on November 12, but the House is planning to take it up again starting November 18.

H.R. 9495, the “Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act,” purports to stop bad actors from using nonprofit organizations to fund terrorism, as is already prohibited under current law. It also includes some laudable provisions to extend tax deadlines for those unlawfully or wrongfully detained or held hostage abroad.

But H.R. 9495 goes much, much farther, building on provisions in previous legislation, H.R. 6408, to empower the Secretary of Treasury to designate 501(c) organizations as “terrorist supporting organizations” and revoke their tax-exempt status with minimal due process. It would allow the Secretary to bring such accusations without disclosing the evidence behind them and would place the burden of proof on the organization to disprove the allegations. The potential for overreach, subjective application, and abuse of this authority is enormous, and the consequences for organizations and the people they serve cannot be overstated.

Representative [Name of Representative], we urge you to vote NO when HR 9495 again goes to the House Floor later this week.

Sincerely,
Name and Nonprofit Organization (mention if you or your org are constituents in their district)

 

 

Sample Phone Script

Hello, my name is _______ and I work at _________,* and [describe your connection to your Rep’s district — maybe you’re a constituent, or your nonprofit does work in their district].

I’m calling to urge Rep [Name of Representative] to change their vote to NO on HR 9495. This bill could be extremely detrimental to the nonprofit sector.

 

The Nonprofit Association of Washington (NAWA) is tracking H.R.9495. The “Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act,” is a bill in Congress that has received renewed attention this week after failing to gain ⅔ of votes last week. 

H.R.9495 has the potential to endanger nonprofits and the work that we do by allowing the government to terminate the tax-exempt status of nonprofits by way of the Secretary of Treasury who would have full authority to designate charitable organizations as “a terrorist-supporting organization”, without the requirement of sharing the evidence or reasoning to the accused nonprofit and the public at large. It places the burden of proof on the nonprofit organization being accused and effectively eliminates due process by only allowing an organization 90 days to prove its innocence before having its tax-exempt status revoked.

If HR9495 passes, charitable organizations that are involved in issues around women’s reproductive rights, serving immigrants and refugees, working on issues related to wars and victims of wars, and even issues around equity, could potentially be deemed as terrorists or domestic terrorists.

This upcoming Thursday, H.R.9495 will head to the House of Representatives to be voted on again and only needs a simple majority to pass. We collectively must take action to prevent this congressional bill from passing.

H.R.9495 goes much further than the provisions to extend tax deadlines for those wrongfully detained or held hostage overseas; it supports the dangerous opportunity to utilize partisan politics to subjectively overreach and abuse the authority of the Secretary of Treasury office to suppress dissent and protest of the actions of the incoming administration.

As nonprofits, we have the right under the 1st amendment to protest and advocate for or against legislation that will directly impact our sector, and with this bill; this right is at risk. We need your support to mobilize your communities to contact their representatives and encourage them to vote NO on H.R. 9495.

Here are things you can do to help defeat this bill:

Join 35,000 Americans who support nonprofits and sign the petition against H.R.9495 at https://actionnetwork.org/forms/denounce-the-52-democrats-who-voted-to-enable-trumps-attacks-on-nonprofits 

Call, email, and even tag our representatives on social media who voted YES last week every day through this Thursday, November 21st at 202-224-3121 and encourage them to vote NO. 

Those representatives are: 

Below you will find a template script for phone calls and a template email you can use.

Engage your board, volunteers, and community members to reach out passionately and personally to encourage our representatives to vote NO on H.R. 9495.

——————————————————–

Sample Email Script

SUBJECT LINE: Vote NO on HR 9495

Dear Representative [ Name of Representative],

The U.S. House of Representatives is preparing to reconsider H.R. 9495, legislation that would empower the U.S. Treasury Secretary to unilaterally deem nonprofits as terrorist-supporting organizations and revoke their tax exemptions with little due process. This bill failed to pass the House on November 12, but the House is planning to take it up again starting November 18.

H.R. 9495, the “Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act,” purports to stop bad actors from using nonprofit organizations to fund terrorism, as is already prohibited under current law. It also includes some laudable provisions to extend tax deadlines for those unlawfully or wrongfully detained or held hostage abroad.

But H.R. 9495 goes much, much farther, building on provisions in previous legislation, H.R. 6408, to empower the Secretary of Treasury to designate 501(c) organizations as “terrorist supporting organizations” and revoke their tax-exempt status with minimal due process. It would allow the Secretary to bring such accusations without disclosing the evidence behind them and would place the burden of proof on the organization to disprove the allegations. The potential for overreach, subjective application, and abuse of this authority is enormous, and the consequences for organizations and the people they serve cannot be overstated.

Representative [Name of Representative], we urge you to vote NO when HR 9495 again goes to the House Floor later this week.

Sincerely,
Name and Nonprofit Organization (mention if you or your org are constituents in their district)

 

 

Sample Phone Script

Hello, my name is _______ and I work at _________,* and [describe your connection to your Rep’s district — maybe you’re a constituent, or your nonprofit does work in their district].

I’m calling to urge Rep [Name of Representative] to change their vote to NO on HR 9495. This bill could be extremely detrimental to the nonprofit sector.