US House passes the ‘non-profit killer bill’ targeting Palestine

The US House of Representatives has passed a bill that would allow the Treasury Department to target non-profit organisations that they find support ‘terrorism’, a catch-all term Washington has used against various non-state actors and other organizations it considers as adversaries.

The bill, HR 9495, called the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act, passed on Thursday by 219-184, with the vast majority of the support coming from Republicans, some accusing Democrats of changing course after Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election. 

The lone dissenting Republican voice to vote of nay came from Thomas Massie, a Libertarian from Kentucky, while 15 Republicans did not vote.

Under the bill’s rules, targeted organisations would have 90 days to file a challenge in court before losing their tax-exempt status.

With nearly 200 representatives voting against it, the bill was far from unanimous. Several progressive Democrats spoke out against it.

Progressive congresswoman Pramila Jayapal of Washington state, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, speaking on the House floor before the vote, described the measure as “an authoritarian play by Republicans to expand the sweeping powers of the executive branch, to go after political enemies and stifle political dissent.”

Similarly, Representative Rashida Tlaib of Michigan shared a video of herself on social media after the vote, saying it was her third time voting against the measure, which she and other progressives are calling the ‘non-profit killer bill’.

“I’ll tell you why we call it that. It gives over-reaching power to the administration, especially the incoming Trump administration to be able to shut down a non-profit organisation they may disagree with politically,” she said while standing on a balcony on Capitol Hill.

“And so, I stood strong and said: we have a right to dissent in our country. It is part of our American culture. It’s part of our democracy to be able to do that. So, let’s fight back together,” she said.

The bill could have major implications for progressive NGOs, particularly anything related to Palestinians, Muslims and the Middle East. Right-wing rhetoric against pro-Palestinian NGOs, non-profits and charities ramped up after protests swept US university campuses over Israel’s war in Gaza. 

Many protesters and organisations were labelled as pro-Hamas without evidence. At one point, Trump called Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer a proud member of Hamas, an example of the haphazard use of the term.

Support and condemnation of the bill are generally along conservative versus progressive lines. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the Anti-Defamation League and the Republican Jewish Coalition have supported the measure. Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union have been leading the progressive charge against it, joined by the Council for American Islamic Relations and others.

“Giving one person in the Treasury Department the power to strip charities, religious schools, civil rights groups, human rights organizations, and other non-profits of their tax status without any evidence or due process is as sinister as it is un-American. Joseph McCarthy would be proud,” Edward Ahmed Mitchell, deputy director of CAIR, told The New Arab.

“Although this bill is obviously meant to target American organizations that support Palestinian human rights, the government could easily weaponize this power against any advocacy group it dislikes,” he warned.

Also voicing extreme concern over the bill, Beth Miller, political director with Jewish Voice for Peace Action, said in a public statement, “This bill is a five-alarm fire for anyone who seeks to protect free speech, civil society and democracy. This bill is part of a broader MAGA assault on the fundamental right to public protest that begins with attacks on Palestinian rights groups and is aimed at outlawing all social justice movements fighting for progressive change.”