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UPDATE (Nov. 21, 2024, 2:53 p.m.) The House passed H.R. 9495 on Thursday in a 219-184 vote. If passed by the Senate and signed into law, the measure would give the Trump administration the authority to strip the tax-exempt status of nonprofits it considers "terrorist supporting organizations."
Republicans in the House have revived their efforts to pass a bill widely decried by human rights and civil rights groups as an effort to crack down on free speech and their ideological opponents.
A look at House Majority Leader Steve Scalise’s weekly schedule shows the so-called Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act bill teed up for a vote Wednesday.
The bill, also known as H.R. 9495, was introduced by Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., and would provide tax relief to Americans held hostage abroad. It would also give the U.S. Treasury unilateral authority to strip tax-exempt status from nonprofits deemed “terrorist supporting organizations.” That’s a frightening prospect given Trump’s previous attempt to designate antifascist protesters as “terrorists,” his classification of pro-Palestinian protesters as “pro-Hamas radicals,” his open desire to quell dissent with violence, and his frequent classification of those who disagree with him as the “enemy from within.”
And frankly, considering Trump’s open fascination with illiberal leaders and their authoritarian style, it’s easy to imagine a Trump administration misusing this power. Fear of what the incoming administration might do with this power is part of the reason the bill — despite garnering dozens of Democratic votes — lacked the two-thirds majority support it needed to be fast-tracked last week, as Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin, co-founders of the progressive movement Indivisible, explained in an essay for MSNBC Daily.
Along with many Democrats in Congress, the bill was opposed by more than 150 civil rights and human rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International, Oxfam America, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a frequent target of bigoted, right-wing terrorism accusations.
It’s unclear whether the Democrat-led Senate would take up the bill if it passes with a clean majority on Wednesday. Or, if it were passed, whether President Joe Biden would sign it. But make no mistake: Its potential passage in the House would be a major step toward giving the incoming Trump administration a powerful tool to wreak havoc on its political foes.