• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
ReligiousLiberty.TV / Founders' First Freedom®

ReligiousLiberty.TV / Founders' First Freedom®

religious liberty and religious freedom news

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Articles
  • Podcast
Home » US Senate strikes Johnson Amendment repeal from spending bill

US Senate strikes Johnson Amendment repeal from spending bill

August 15, 2018 by Michael Peabody

The Senate has stripped language from a House spending bill that would have stopped the Internal Revenue Service from revoking the tax-exempt status of non-profit organizations that engage in campaigning for political candidates.

As passed by the House of Representatives on July 19, 2018, by a vote of 217 to 199, Section 112 of H.R. 6147, the “Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2019” would have taken away funding for the IRS to enforce the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits tax-exempt organizations from engaging in political campaigning for or against candidates. Non-profit organizations may address current legislative or policy issues in a non-partisan manner.

Although members of the House had attempted to remove the language, they failed to do so, but between July 19 and August 1 the Senate reviewed numerous amendments and ultimately removed Section 112. The revised bill overwhelmingly passed the Senate by a vote of 92 to 6.

While the IRS has rarely attempted to enforce the Johnson Amendment, it is widely thought that its elimination would open the floodgates for non-profit organizations to begin to divert non-traceable tax-deductible “dark money” donations to political campaigning on behalf of political candidates and strike against the non-partisan nature of non-profit charities.

Last year,  a similar attempt to revoke the Johnson Amendment failed after Democrats invoked the “Byrd rule,” which prohibits reconciliation tax bills from including “extraneous” provisions not related to federal revenue and spending.

In a May 4, 2017, executive order, President Trump ordered that the IRS limit enforcement of the Johnson Amendment “to the extent permitted by law.” Despite claims to the contrary, the order did not alter or eliminate the Johnson Amendment, and it remains in force.

Takeaway:  Eliminating the Johnson Amendment plays well with “the base,” but most non-profits really don’t want it eliminated because they do not want the pressure from donors to deal with electoral politics. So the repeal language passes in the House version of a spending bill and gets kicked from the Senate due to the obscure Byrd Rule. This happened last year as well. The Trump administration issued an executive order about it in 2017, but avoided making any substantive changes.  If Congress were really serious about eliminating the Johnson Amendment, it would be done in a separate piece of legislation.

Filed Under: Current Events

Primary Sidebar

Geneva, Switzerland - December 03, 2019: World Health Organization (WHO / OMS) Headquarters - DepositPhotos.com

Biden admin could hand over US control of health emergencies to WHO next week

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The ultimate control over America’s health care and its national sovereignty will be put up for a vote next week at a meeting of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) governing legislative body, the World Health Assembly (WHA).  On May 22-28, 2022, the 75th World Health Assembly will convene at the United Nations […]

Statement on the Leak in Dobbs

The leak was intended to disrupt the processing of the decision and we are not going to dignify the leak or the unidentified leaker by analyzing it prematurely. As a constitutional republic we cannot go down that road without doing severe damage to the institution of the Supreme Court where there must be professional courtesy between the justices and their staffs.

Boston City Hall - photo from Supreme Court Opinion

Supreme Court rules 9-0 that Boston violated 1st Amendment in refusing Christian flag at City Hall

This morning the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Shurtleff v. Boston (Dec’d 5/2/2022) that the city of Boston violated the free speech rights of a Christian group when it refused to allow them to participate in a city flag raising program.

Active Liberty - a survey of Justice Stephen Breyer's religion clause jurisprudence - Supreme Court

Active Liberty: A Survey of Justice Stephen Breyer’s Religion Clause Decisions

A comprehensive review of retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer’s decisions in Free Exercise and Establishment Clause cases.

Canadian gov’t calculates that expansion of assisted suicide will save taxpayers millions of dollars

In Canada, it is easier for the disabled who do not suffer terminal illness to get approval for assisted suicide than approval for affordable housing. The government has calculated the cost of providing healthcare versus providing assisted suicide.

Random Quote

The temptation of the age is to look good without being good

— Brennan Manning

Get the ReligiousLiberty.TV Newsletter!

Comes out a couple of times a month. Unsubscribe anytime automatically, no questions asked.
* = required field
unsubscribe from list

powered by MailChimp!

Copyright © 2022 Founders' First Freedom is a registered trademark. All rights reserved.

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Articles
  • Podcast
0
0
0
0