US House passes bill allowing Treasury to punish non-profits it deems to support terrorism

The US House passed legislation on Thursday that would give the Treasury Department unilateral authority to strip the tax-exempt status of nonprofits it claims support terrorism, alarming civil liberties groups about how a second Trump presidency could invoke it to punish political opponents.

The bill passed 219-184, with the majority of the support coming from Republicans who accused Democrats of reversing course in their support for the “common sense” proposal only after Donald Trump was elected to a second term earlier this month.

Speaking on the House floor ahead of the vote, congressman Jason Smith, Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said his colleagues across the aisle would still be supporting the bill if Vice-President Kamala Harris won the presidential election. “And we, as members of Congress, have the duty to make sure that taxpayers are not subsidising terrorism,” the Missouri lawmaker said. “It’s very, very simple.”

But the proposal has drawn concern from a range of nonprofits who say it could be used to target organisations, including news outlets, universities, and civil society groups, that a future presidential administration disagrees with. They say it does not offer groups enough due process.

“This bill is an authoritarian play by Republicans to expand the sweeping powers of the executive branch, to go after political enemies and stifle political dissent,” congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, the chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said on the House floor ahead of the vote.

Critics also see it as redundant as it is already against US law to support designated terrorist groups. The proposal, which now goes to the Democratic-controlled Senate where its fate is uncertain, would also postpone tax filing deadlines for Americans held hostage or unlawfully detained abroad.