John,

There’s a dangerous piece of legislation that has passed the U.S. House and is now in the Senate, which could threaten our work and the work of our coalition partners.

H.R. 9495, which advocacy groups are calling the “Nonprofit Killer” bill, would give the U.S. Treasury Secretary unchecked power to revoke a nonprofit organization’s tax-exempt status by merely claiming―with no evidence or due process―that the organization is “terrorist supporting.”

This legislation is a direct attack on civil liberty, religious, human rights, and racial justice organizations’ ability to advocate for marginalized communities. It’s a means to silence dissent from the views and actions of the federal government―which is our constitutional right to do. Dissent, after all, is patriotic.

This legislation must not make it to President Biden’s desk.

Join us in calling on the Senate to reject H.R. 9495 and protect our society and advocacy organizations from dangerous government overreach.

As our coalition partners at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights have pointed out: federal law prohibits terrorist organizations from receiving tax-exempt status and the federal government already has broad discretion to designate organizations as providing support to “terrorist organizations” with little due process.¹

We don’t have to look far back in history to show how dangerous legislation like H.R. 9495 can be. Martin Luther King, Jr. was constantly surveilled by the FBI, which also kept a dossier on him and used it as blackmail. Several other high profile civil and human rights leaders and organizations have also been targeted with government surveillance and oppression.

We cannot allow history to repeat itself―for the government to target defenders of human rights and justice. The Senate must stop this dangerous legislation now.

Send a direct message to the Senate today urging them to reject H.R. 9495.

Thank you for all you do,

Deborah Weinstein
Executive Director, CHN Action

¹ LDF Sign-on Letter Opposing H.R. 9495