WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX), Chairman of the House Budget Committee, and Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA), Chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Tax, introduced the "Don't Weaponize The IRS Act," a bill to prevent the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from being used as a political weapon against conservative non-profit groups.
The Don’t Weaponize the IRS Act codifies the Trump Administration rule that protects groups regardless of their political ideology or beliefs and prevents the IRS from doxing donors to these groups. Companion legislation was introduced in the U.S. Senate by Sens. Mike Braun (R-IN) and Todd Young (R-IN).
"There is no legitimate reason for the IRS to demand the names and addresses of Americans who donate to non-profit organizations. This information has been used to target, harass, and penalize conservatives,” said Arrington. “The Don't Weaponize the IRS Act protects Americans' first amendment rights to exercise their religious and political beliefs without fear of retribution from an intrusive federal government, and I'm proud to lead this legislation with my colleague Representative Kelly."
"Americans should be able to donate to causes they believe in without fear of retribution from Washington bureaucrats who have a long, sad history of targeting individuals and organizations because of their political beliefs," Kelly said."In our democracy, it is simply un-American to hamper any individual's right to exercise their personally held religious and political views."
Background:
From 2010 to 2012, the IRS spent over two years systematically targeting conservative tax-exempt groups. The Trump Administration released a final rule in May 2020 that prevented the IRS from targeting certain tax-exempt groups based on their political beliefs.
The bill’s reintroduction comes as the IRS’s impartiality is being questioned for visiting the home of journalist Matt Taibbi – whose reporting revealed collaboration between the federal government and social media companies such as Twitter to censor inconvenient information and counter-narrative news stories – while he was testifying at the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.
Removing the requirement to report the names and addresses of donors helps protect taxpayers’ First Amendment rights as such information is not needed for tax administration purposes.
Rep. Kelly previously introduced the bill in 2021.
