President-elect Donald Trump’s looming return to the White House is spurring disagreements over a bill U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, voted for that would allow the Treasury Department to end the tax-exempt status of nonprofits deemed to support terrorism.
Maine’s association of nonprofits pushed Golden to vote against the bill that has become part of a broader debate over whether and how Trump will go after his political opponents once he takes office in January. Critics argued the legislation will let him use the Treasury Department to punish left-leaning nonprofits by claiming they back terrorism and called the bill redundant, as it is already against federal law to provide support to terrorist groups.
But Golden, a moderate who won last month a fourth term representing a rural district that has backed Trump in each election, said those fears are “unfounded if you just read the bill.”
“This is what I call the reemergence of ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome,’ where suddenly people are opposing perfectly sane policies on the grounds that somehow it is going to be weaponized in ways that are not possible,” Golden said.
The Maine Association of Nonprofits asked its more than 1,000 members to contact Golden to tell him to oppose the bill, arguing it “would go far beyond appropriate accountability, and has an unacceptable risk of unintended consequences for the nonprofit community.”
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“Because of advocacy by the sector, the bill is now seen as controversial and high-profile, and we don’t believe it will advance without generating further outrage,” said Mary Alice Scott, the association’s public affairs manager.
Scott added the association has heard that various organizations “are nervous about speaking out on this topic.”
U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, a progressive who represents Maine’s 1st District, backed an initial version of the measure before opposing it after Trump won the November election over Vice President Kamala Harris. Golden, the 2nd District moderate, and only 14 other House Democrats continued to vote in favor of the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act.
U.S. Rep. David Kustoff, R-Tennessee, introduced an initial version of the bill to suspend the tax-exempt status of “terrorist supporting organizations” after Hamas fighters attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, setting off a broader, devastating war that has not ended. The bill defines “terrorist supporting organizations” as giving material support to terrorist groups in the prior three years.
After the Senate did not take up the initial version, U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-New York, and a bipartisan group of co-sponsors reintroduced the bill in September with added provisions that postpone tax filing deadlines for Americans unlawfully detained or held hostage abroad and allow for the refunding or canceling of tax penalties and fines paid by hostages and dependents.
The government would have to notify a nonprofit before the treasury secretary identifies it as a “terrorist supporting organization,” and a group would have 90 days to contest the designation or “cure” it by making “reasonable efforts” to return the support and certifying it will no longer provide such support, according to the bill. It also says the Treasury Department must provide affected organizations with “a description of such material support or resources.” The IRS and judges could review “terrorist supporting” designations that the government could later rescind.
Both Golden and Pingree supported the initial measure that the House passed 382-11 in April, but the reintroduced version only passed the House last month by a 219-184 margin, with Golden and 14 other Democrats supporting it. Pingree acknowledged in a statement last week she voted for the initial version in the spring and said she believes the tax relief provisions for hostages could have moved forward in standalone legislation.
“However, with the election of Donald Trump — who has repeatedly stated his intent to use governmental power to target his perceived ‘enemy within’ — I am deeply concerned by the prospect of his administration having unilateral access to these new powers,” Pingree said.
Pingree added that while she remains “committed to fighting terrorism and supporting hostages abroad, I could not in good conscience support legislation that jeopardizes our democratic institutions and core freedoms.”
The Senate will likely take until next year to vote on a similar proposal, and it has good prospects of passing given the GOP will have a governing trifecta by controlling the two chambers and White House once Trump returns to office.
Golden, who is frequently mentioned as a potential 2026 gubernatorial candidate, said he and his office have heard from constituents who “received misleading emails” from groups that “are fearful their advocacy against Donald Trump will be used against them.”
He also alluded to how the Treasury Department under President Joe Biden has gone after people and “sham” charities for financially supporting Hamas amid its deadly conflict with Israel. The Treasury Department noted other terrorist groups, such as ISIS and Hezbollah, have formally and informally used the U.S. financial system and schemes to their benefit.
Golden said “99.9 percent of nonprofits don’t allow themselves to be used that way, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t seek to close down this loophole for those that do.”
“It’s a good policy,” Golden added.