NewsHow should nonprofits prepare for the ‘nonprofit killer’ bill becoming law?

How should nonprofits prepare for the ‘nonprofit killer’ bill becoming law?

(RNS) — On our WhatsApp group, the board members of a disability nonprofit I belong to were discussing HR 9495, a bill known as the “nonprofit killer” that passed in the House of Representatives last week by a simple majority vote of 219-184. 

Our executive editor posted a question: “Any action to be taken?”

Across the nonprofit world, not least in Muslim, Arab and Palestinian nonprofits, organizations that support causes not favored by the incoming Trump administration are deeply concerned about the “Stop Terror Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act,” which would give the secretary of the Treasury unilateral power to revoke the tax-exempt status of “terrorist-supporting” nonprofits. The “terrorist-supporting” designation could be imposed without proof, with the accused given a 90-day window to show it doesn’t support terror — to prove a negative.

“What’s behind this latest bill is a desire to shut down pro-Palestinian voices,” said Oussama Mezoui, a nonprofit consultant and board director at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding and Oxfam America. But those at risk include any social justice organizations that disagree with the current or incoming administration.

And with Americans in every state serving more than 1.5 million tax-exempt nonprofits in the United States, according to the Nonprofit Risk Management Center, House Bill 9495 should concern all of us.

The bill, introduced by U.S. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas last spring, easily passed the House at the time but failed in the Senate. With a few changes, it passed the House on Nov. 21.

In her third time voting against the bill, U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan said on the House floor, “This is a dangerous and an unconstitutional bill that would allow unchecked power to target nonprofit organizations as political enemies and shut them down without due process.”

How should nonprofits be preparing should this bill pass? 

Storm clouds gather above the U.S. Capitol. (Photo by Harun Tan/Pexels/Creative Commons)

Mezoui said that if nonprofits haven’t made sure they are complying with local, state and federal laws, now is the time to do so. “Organizations should have a thorough audit of their policies, their procedures, their due diligence documentation … basically crossing their t’s and dotting their i’s.”

They should not give anyone “any excuse to investigate or to shut them down,” he said.

Zahra Billoo, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, San Francisco Bay Area, is no stranger to her nonprofit facing scrutiny. Since 9/11, many Muslim groups have been under a microscope and a few have been accused of supporting terror.

“We’ve all learned that it is imperative that our finances, our procedures and everything we do is not just in compliance with the law but far exceeds those standards,” she said. “The more effective you are, the more rigor you bring to the work, the higher quality the work is,

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