House Republicans' new draft budget bill includes a controversial provision permitting the Treasury Department to revoke the tax-exempt status of nonprofits classified as 'terrorist-supporting organizations.' This echoes past legislation, HR 9495, which empowered the treasury secretary to label NGOs as terrorist supporters without rigorous checks. Critics argue this opens the door for political abuse and undermines civil society. Similar concerns arise from Hungary's recent proposal to blacklist organizations receiving foreign funding under national security pretenses, emphasizing a global pattern of targeting dissenting voices.
Critics, however, note that this language can easily be politically weaponized by, say, a treasury secretary serving an administration interested in executive overreach.
Defenders of the law will say that this isn't politically motivated; the NGO would have met the definition of supporting terrorism.
Last year, I warned that this legislation could be used by an administration interested in going after civil society by manipulating the language of national security.
If that sounds familiar, it's because similar legislation came before the House last year... as HR 9495, the "Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act."
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