Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. BEYER. Mr. Speaker, I also stand in opposition to this bill, which would provide the administration sweeping, unilateral authority to designate nonprofits as terror-supporting organizations and strip them of their tax-exempt status with no due process and without sufficient evidence.

The authorities provided in this bill are unnecessary and dangerous in the wrong hands. The legislation would do nothing to improve our ability to combat terrorism, as there are already numerous legal mechanisms which effectively monitor and penalize nonprofits that provide support for terrorist organizations.

No one serving in this institution wants a single dollar to find its way into the hands of a terrorist group, and it is inappropriate to suggest otherwise, but in the hands of a responsible government, the powers provided in this bill are merely redundant. However, Mr. Speaker, history is uncertain. Democracies, even ours, can wax and wane. Sometimes we have great Presidents, and sometimes we do not.

Under the leadership of an unscrupulous authoritarian, it is not hard to imagine how an administration could use the powers in this bill to hinder or dismantle organizations that its leader does not like.

Mr. Speaker, some 15 years ago, before I was here, there was a huge controversy over the IRS under Barack Obama investigating nonprofit organizations that may not have actually been nonprofits, that they were political organizations and campaign organizations promoting ideologies doing nothing to help the American people.

It turns out there were as many on the left doing this perhaps as on the right. However, my Republican friends were apoplectic about this because they said that a President could unscrupulously cross out and take away the tax-exempt status of these NGOs that are their rightful thing. It is fair right now to consider that Democratic Presidents and Republican Presidents could misuse this power.

I voted for it with concerns a couple of weeks ago, but that was before organization after organization met with me, called my office, and sent letters. Community foundations across this region, hardly terrorist-supporting organizations, are terrified that their nonprofit status will be taken away from them unjustly and inappropriately.

It is deeply unfortunate that this was matched with a very good, commonsense legislation that Congresswomen Dina Titus, Claudia Tenney, and I are co-leading on postponing fines and fees on taxpayers who have been unlawfully detained as hostages. This is what passed the Senate overwhelmingly. In pairing this deeply controversial legislation, we have all woken up to that potential, not just because of Donald Trump, but because the nonprofits could be affected by it and are aware of its impact. It happened immediately after it came out of the Ways and Means Committee.

For this reason, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose H.R. 9495, and I hope that we can find a path forward to provide desperately needed relief for the Americans who have been wrongfully detained overseas.

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