Preventing IRS Abuse and Protecting Free Speech Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. BECERRA. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I think it is, first, important to clarify this legislation impacts tax exempt organizations under the Tax Code, section 501(c). Many of these tax exempt organizations we recognize as charities, like United Way and so forth, foundations. Social welfare organizations, they come in any variety.

A social welfare organization, typically when we think social welfare, it means, essentially, organizations that are promoting the common good and the general welfare of the people of a community. Social welfare organizations.

What the problem, then, here is that we have seen so many social welfare organizations, the 501(c)(4)s, become not promoters of social good, but some of the biggest campaign spenders in our election process. They use the loopholes in the Tax Code to be able to collect a whole bunch of money that usually Americans think goes to do social welfare and instead is now being used to drive our campaigns.

So this is now the problem with this particular legislation. This legislation says: You know what? Those organizations right now have to document who is giving them money, who is contributing the dollars to them, if it is bigger than a $5,000 contribution.

This bill says no longer would any of those 501(c) organizations, those tax exempt organizations, have to file the name of the contributor.

At a time, right now, when so many Americans have become skeptical about our government's ability to promote the interests of our citizens first, at a time when so many believe our government is driven by special interests, we should be asking for more openness in our government, not less in how we do business. Secret money is hijacking our American democracy.

This bill would prohibit the disclosure of substantial contributions and promote special interest secrecy.

What do I mean by that? This bill becomes a license to secretly influence our elections.

How? A foreign government doesn't like where American policy is going, so guess what? They want to influence who gets elected.

What do they do? They don't make a contribution to a candidate because they can't under the law.

What did they do? They now give to one of these social welfare organizations and let them use the money to politic in our campaigns.

And guess what? If this bill becomes law, you will never know the name of that foreign government or foreign government official who makes that contribution. It can be a $5,000 contribution. It can be a $5 billion contribution. You never have to report it if you are one of these tax exempt organizations.

What else? Say there are drug traffickers who don't like that we may be getting tough on our drug laws. They don't like it. They want to elect people who won't be so tough. Because a drug trafficker won't give it directly to a candidate, they give it to one of these social welfare organizations. The social welfare organization, under this bill, won't have to report the contribution, the name of the contributor. If that drug trafficker gives $5,000 or $5 billion, it is never disclosed.

Who else? We are right now fighting ISIS. Say ISIS wants to make sure somebody gets elected to be the next President or a Member of Congress. They don't like somebody else. How do the they influence our elections? They get one of their wealthy contributors to give money to one of these tax exempt organizations. And guess what? That ISIS contributor never gets disclosed.

Since when do Americans want us to have a system in our elections where contributions can be made to influence our elections if we don't know who is doing it?

If you don't believe it is true that that is going on, let me give you this statistic that will blow your mind. Four years ago, in our last Presidential election, the parties--the Democrat Party and the Republican Party combined, the parties that we know are there for politics--spent a quarter of a billion dollars in the 2012 elections.

Guess how much these social welfare organizations spent in that same election? More than the two parties combined.

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Mr. BECERRA. Mr. Speaker, the parties spent $255 million in 2012 politicking because that is what they are there to do. They have a partisan position, so they are using their money that people contribute to politick.

And by the way, when you make a contribution, you have got to report it when you make a contribution to that political party.

$257 million in 2012 was spent by these social welfare organizations on politicking, and under this bill, if it becomes law, guess what? Those contributors won't have to be identified; and so whatever your motives, you get to influence our elections without the American people--who can't do the same thing, because if they give a contribution, they have got to disclose it--without the American people knowing who you are.

I don't believe that is where this country wants to go. And I don't care under what good-government kind of window you try to frame this, what you are doing is you are opening the door for secret money to influence our elections--as if it isn't bad enough how much our elections are influenced by people who have wealth and do much more than the average American can ever do.

So, Mr. Speaker, this is not a time to do that. Let's vote for openness. And if you vote for openness, you have to vote against this bill.

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Mr. BECERRA. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I just want to respond to my friend from Illinois and some of his comments, and my friend from Oregon.

The Clinton Foundation, great that you raise that because, see, the Clinton Foundation has raised a lot of questions in the minds of some. At least, some are trying to politicize it, whether you agree or don't agree with the money that came, because some money did come from foreign sources.

This bill would terminate the need for the Clinton Foundation to report any sources of its income. So, if you are concerned that the Clinton Foundation has gotten some contributions from foreign sources, this bill makes it worse because, under this legislation, the Clinton Foundation wouldn't have to report any of those contributions anymore. And so that is the craziness of this legislation.

It is not speculation to say what will happen. We have gone from virtually zero spending by social welfare organizations that are tax exempt for political purposes to, now, these social welfare organizations spending more than the political parties spend together.

So it is not speculation. The expert from the Joint Tax Committee said so himself. This is what will happen, could happen, if we pass this legislation.

Please reject this bill.

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