House Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee said on Thursday that over 60 alleged hate groups, mostly socially conservative organizations, anti-immigration entities, and religious groups should be stripped of their tax-exempt status.
(5/5): These remarks are vile and only work to perpetuate hate crimes and stir division. There is no reason the U.S. government should continue to subsidize groups like these – Ways & Means Dems are shining a light on this issue today.
— Ways & Means Committee (@WaysMeansCmte) September 19, 2019
Some of the bigger organizations on the list include the fundamentalist Protestant group American Family Association, which opposes gay rights, the anti-immigration organization Federation for American Immigration Reform, the conservative think tank the Center for Security Policy, and the socially conservative group the Family Research Council. The groups were designated as “hate groups” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a group that itself is controversial and whose founder was fired this year for misconduct.
The Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee held a hearing Thursday focused on “How The Tax Code Subsidizes Hate,” at which Democrats said they were concerned about the government subsidizing groups that millions of Americans would find abhorrent and Republicans said they feared that First Amendment rights could be infringed ending some groups’ tax-exempt status.
The subcommittee heard from multiple victims of mass shootings, who shared their stories and asked the congressmen to take legislative action to eliminate the tax benefits given to nonprofit groups that may proliferate hate and discrimination.
No legislation has been proposed at the moment.
