WASHINGTON — The House on Thursday passed legislation that would allow the government to revoke the tax-exempt status of nonprofit groups it accuses of supporting terrorist entities, despite significant opposition from Democrats who warned that President-elect Donald Trump could exploit it to target his political enemies.
The bill, which also waives the tax liability for U.S. hostages while they are in captivity, began as a strongly bipartisan venture. In April, the House overwhelmingly passed identical provisions, and in September, the measure earned the unanimous support of the Ways and Means Committee.
But then Trump was elected president. And suddenly, what most Democrats had initially regarded as a tool for targeting terrorist groups began to be seen as a potentially dangerous weapon ripe for abuse by a president bent on kneecapping his rivals.
An array of nonprofit groups on the left began an intensive lobbying campaign to kill the measure, convinced that Trump would try to use it to wipe them out.
Democrats took up the refrain and most dropped their support for the legislation, which passed largely along party lines Thursday.
“This is the death penalty bill that we’re considering today, the bill that empowers Donald Trump to extinguish the life of any nonprofit, of any civil society group, which happens to be on his enemies list,” Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, said Thursday.
Republican lawmakers argued that Democrats’ fears were overblown, insisting that the bill was necessary to choke off financing for terrorist entities and frequently citing the example of Hamas.
“This bill is desperately needed to end the tax-exempt status to organizations that have provided material support to terrorists,” Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., chair of the Ways and Means Committee, said Thursday.
The legislation passed by a vote of 219-184, with all but one Republican in support and all but 15 Democrats opposed. The margin reflected how significantly Democratic sentiments on the measure had changed since Trump’s election: The vast majority of Democrats voting against the bill Thursday backed identical legislation earlier this year.
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