Stop Targeting of Political Beliefs by the IRS Act of 2014

Floor Speech

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Ms. MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM of New Mexico. Mr. Speaker, Federal law states that social welfare groups must exclusively promote social welfare. Social welfare includes activities like early childhood education, environmental protection, or veterans' assistance, not partisan political campaign activity.

Now, there is an important book on the House floor, and it is a dictionary. We have that book here because this is a lawmaking institution, and the precise definition of words is incredibly important.

Now, last time I looked up the word ``exclusively,'' it meant everything, excluding everything else, solely, or only.

However, the IRS must have found an alternative definition for exclusively when it issued a regulation allowing social welfare organizations to only primarily promote social welfare. This contradiction between Federal law and IRS regulation has allowed these groups to spend over a quarter-billion dollars on political campaign activity, not their social welfare mission, while keeping their donors secret.

I urge my colleagues simply to vote against the bill and let the IRS move forward with this proposed regulation to correct this. ``Exclusively'' should mean exclusively.

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