Senate prospects appeared dim Monday for a controversial bill that recently passed the House that many civil liberties groups and nonprofits said could be used to retaliate against them for their activities.
In an email to HuffPost on Monday, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that Schumer “is opposed to the provisions to strip accused nonprofits of their tax-exempt status.”
Combined with the dwindling time lawmakers have to pass a bill to keep the government open past Dec. 20 and Schumer’s intent to spend precious Senate floor time on confirming federal judges, the outlook for the bill was already cloudy before the disclosure of Schumer’s position. As majority leader, Schumer decides what bills get consideration by the full Senate.
The bill passed the House Thursday on a 219-184 vote, with 30 representatives not voting. Only one Republican, libertarian-leaning Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), voted against it, while only 15 Democrats voted in support.
The bill would allow the treasury secretary to more quickly take away the tax-exempt status of groups that have provided support for groups listed by the government as terrorist organizations.
The nonprofit groups would have to be notified of their designation as terrorist-supporting organizations at least 90 days beforehand and would have that time to make changes to prevent being stripped of their exempt status. They could also challenge the exemption with the IRS and in federal court.
Despite those safeguards, many groups spanning the ideological spectrum, from the American Civil Liberties Union to the libertarian Cato Institute, worried they would not be enough to prevent the new authority from being abused.
Critics also found a receptive audience among House Democrats. Fifty-two supported the bill in an initial vote on Nov. 12, many more than the 15 who supported it in the final vote. The prospect of a Donald Trump administration having that new power, after Trump has said publicly he was entitled to take revenge on his political enemies, concerned many Democrats.
“The GOP wants to give the new president Orwellian powers to impose a Kafkaesque nightmare on America’s nonprofits,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said in a social media post, adding, ”What could go wrong with the new administration having the power to designate groups as ‘terrorist-supporting’ with no judicial determination and no due process?”
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Republicans said the fears of abuse were unfounded and an overreaction to Trump’s election. They also touted the other part of the bill, language that would ease tax penalties assessed on people unable to file their taxes because they are being held hostage abroad.
“Congress must act to stop this abuse of our tax code that is funding terrorism around the world. We must act to end the unfair tax treatment of Americans who have already suffered enough — and whose families have suffered enough — from being held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad,” said Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said in a statement Thursday.
If the bill fails to be passed by both the House and Senate by the time the new Congress is seated in early January, advocates will have to start all over again with a new bill.
However, the bill, or only portions of it, could still be tucked into other legislation that is expected to pass before Congress adjourns, such as a temporary spending bill or a huge defense policy bill.