FreedomWorks and 59 other major conservative and free market groups have signed onto the following coalition letter by American Commitment, urging Congress to pass the Stop Targeting of Political Beliefs by the IRS Act, H.R. 3865.

February 25, 2014

Dear Members of Congress:

We urge you to vote yes on H.R. 3865, the Stop Targeting of Political Beliefs by the IRS Act of 2014.

The IRS confessed to targeting conservative groups in a stunning abuse of power. Now the IRS proposes a draconian rule limiting the lawful activities of these same groups and all others organized under Section 501(c)(4).

The proposed rule would restrict the free speech rights of 501(c)(4) groups by arbitrarily deeming political a wide variety of activities to be in the newly-created category of “Candidate-Related Political Activity,” which would include voter registration drives, candidate debates, voter guides, voting records and key votes. It would restrict any criticism of an incumbent federal, state, or local politician within 30 days of a primary or 60 days of a general election and effectively require groups to remove any reference to politicians from their websites during these windows. It even distorts the definition of "candidate" to include appointees, so groups weighing in on executive or judicial nominations would be restricted.

As the American Civil Liberties Union commented to the IRS:

Most social welfare organizations - on both the left and right — serve exactly that function as they see it, the promotion of social welfare and community good. Based on their respective visions, they advocate for the powerless and the voiceless. They promote fiscal responsibility and good government. They serve as a check on government overreach, or as a cheerleader for sound public policy.

In many of these functions, social welfare organizations praise or criticize candidates for public office on the issues and they should be able to do so freely, without fear of losing or being denied tax-exempt status, even if doing so could influence a citizen’s vote. Such advocacy is at the heart of our representative democracy. To the extent it influences voting, it does so by promoting an informed citizenry.

The rule proceeds from the false assumption that political engagement and discussion of public policy issues and the merits of nominees who implement them cannot be part and parcel of a social welfare mission. This is not what the law requires and it is inconsistent with longstanding historical practice and understanding.

While Section 501(c)(3) of the tax code specifically bars those organizations from engaging in political activity, no such prohibition exists in Section 501(c)(4). There is therefore no statutory basis for imposing the restrictions the IRS proposes.

The apparent rush from the IRS to implement this ill-considered rule in the middle of the current tax year must be stopped.

H.R. 3865 is a modest measure that would simply prohibit the IRS from finalizing the rule this year, giving it adequate time to consider all of the practical, statutory, and constitutional criticisms of its proposal – as well as giving investigators time to complete their investigations into the targeting scandal before deciding what, if any, legal reforms are appropriate.

We therefore urge you to vote YES on H.R. 3865.

Sincerely, Jim Martin Chairman 60 Plus Association

Melissa Ortiz Founder/Principal Able Americans

Phil Kerpen President American Commitment

Dan Schneider Executive Director American Conservative Union

Thomas Pyle President American Energy Alliance

Gary L. Bauer President American Values

Brent Gardner Director of Federal Affairs Americans for Prosperity

Grover Norquist President Americans for Tax Reform

John Tate President Campaign for Liberty

Sean Noble President Center to Protect Patient Rights

Jeffrey Mazzella President Center for Individual Freedom

Matt Patterson Executive Director Center for Worker Freedom

Elaine Donnelly President Center for Military Readiness

Chris Chocola President Club for Growth

Gary Aldrich President and Chairman of the Board CNP Action, Inc.

Penny Nance President and CEO Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee

Peter J. Thomas Chairman The Conservative Caucus

Richard Viguerie Chairman ConservativeHQ.com

Mattie Duppler Executive Director Cost of Government Center

Thomas A. Schatz President Council for Citizens Against Government Waste

Brian Baker President Ending Spending

Ralph Reed Chairman Faith & Freedom Coalition

Larry Cirignano President Faithful Catholic Citizens

Dick Patten President Family Business Defense Council

Sandy Rios Vice President Family Pac Federal

David Christensen VP of Government Affairs Family Research Council

David Bozell Executive Director ForAmerica

James S. Gilmore III President Free Congress Action

Coley Jackson President Freedom Action

Matt Kibbe President FreedomWorks

George Landrith President Frontiers of Freedom

Larry Pratt Executive Director Gun Owners of America

Michael Needham Chief Executive Officer Heritage Action

Mario H. Lopez President Hispanic Leadership Fund

Michael Smith, Esq. President Home School Legal Defense Association

Heather R. Higgins President Independent Women’s Voice

Andrew Langer President Institute for Liberty

Seton Motley President Less Government

Colin A. Hanna President Let Freedom Ring

Mathew Staver Chairman Liberty Counsel Action

Tom McClusky VP of Government Affairs March for Life

Dee Hodges President Maryland Taxpayers Association

Lew Uhler President National Tax Limitation Committee

Brandon Arnold VP of Government Affairs National Taxpayers Union

Roy Beck President NumbersUSA

Paul Caprio Director Patriotic Veterans

Dave Wallace, II Founder Restore America's Mission

Ken Hoagland Chairman Restore America's Voice

Lawrence A. Hunter President Social Security Institute

David Williams President Taxpayers Protection Alliance

Amy Kremer Chairman Tea Party Express

Judson Phillips President Tea Party Nation

Jennifer Martin President & Co-Founder Tea Party Patriots

Todd Cefaratti Founder TheTeaParty.Net

C. Preston Noell III President Tradition, Family, Property, Inc.

Andrea Lafferty President Traditional Values Coalition

Carl Bearden Executive Director United for Missouri

Susan Carleson Chairman/President Welfare Reform Action Fund

Morton Blackwell Chairman The Weyrich Lunch

Ron Robinson President Young America's Foundation

Capitol Hill Update, 10 February, 2014

House & Senate/Schedule: Both chambers are in session this week.  Both will recess on Wednesday and leave town through the 24th of February, unless an agreement is reached on the debt ceiling.

Legislative Highlight of the Week: The suspension of the debt ceiling officially ended on February 7th, meaning that the Treasury Department is once again back to using “extraordinary measures” to fund federal spending until the limit is increased once more.  Treasury Secretary Jack Lew estimates that funding will run out near the end of February.  Democrats want a “clean” debt ceiling hike, while some Republicans are debating what reforms they may demand in return for the increase.

House/Financial Services: The main bill on the floor of the House this week will be H.R. 3193, the Consumer Financial Protection and Soundness Act.  Sponsored by Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI), this bill attempts to rein in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, one of the major new regulatory bodies created under the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill of 2010. Currently this agency has essentially no oversight by Congress, and this bill would at least reform the CFPB by making it an independent executive agency headed by a board of five members – all subject to Congressional approval – rather than being headed by one individual.

House/IRS Targeting: The House Committee on Ways & Means will be marking up H.R. 3865, the Stop Targeting of Political Beliefs by the IRS Act.  Sponsored by Ways & Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI), this bill would stop the IRS from finalizing its proposed regulations that would prevent 501(c)4 non-profit groups from having any voice in the political process.  This would mean that a great many tea party and 9/12 groups, along with many of the larger D.C. non-profits, would be not allowed to conduct voter education or registration, hold candidate forums, or even mention the name of any candidate actively up for election.  FreedomWorks strongly supports Camp’s bill – you can see our letter of support HERE.

Senate/Veterans’ Benefits: The Senate may vote this week on a bill that would restore funding for Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) increases on veterans’ benefits, which were cut in the Ryan/Murray budget and omnibus deal last month.  Although cutting veteran compensation was clearly not the wisest choice when looking for spending cuts, the bigger point is that even the limited cuts that were promised in the deal are already under attack, as we predicted they would be.  

As one of our millions of FreedomWorks members nationwide, I urge you to contact your Representative today and urge him or her to support H.R. 3865, the Stop Targeting of Political Beliefs by the IRS Act, and to co-sponsor the bill if he or she has not already done so.

After the revelations that the IRS specifically targeted and harassed conservative group seeking non-profit status, the IRS should have put countermeasures in place to ensure that such abuses cannot happen again.  Instead, the IRS has proposed to solve the problem by issuing a new proposed rule that would prevent any group given the 501(c)4 tax-exempt status from engaging in almost any political activities whatsoever.

501(c)4 non-profit groups have conducted voter education and get-out-the-vote activities for decades – the grassroots equivalent of the 501(c)5 and 501(c)6 groups that conduct similar activities for labor unions and business associations, respectively. This new regulation would stop (c)4 groups from even mentioning the name of a candidate who is running for office, from holding non-partisan candidate forums, and even from conducting voter registration drives.  These restrictions would not only make the sort of voter education that these non-profit groups have always done impossible, it could also prohibit them from opining on the voting records and conduct of members of Congress during election years.

H.R. 3865, sponsored by Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI), would prevent the IRS from promulgating this or similar regulations for a year, while his House Ways & Means Committee continues to investigate the IRS targeting of political groups.

If there was any doubt as to the intent of the proposed regulation, IRS emails were recently revealed showing that the process of developing rule to curb political speech in 501(c)4 organizations were developed in secret by the IRS official who oversaw the targeted IRS harassment of tea party groups. Such a blatant abuse of power – and of our right to political free speech – by the IRS cannot be tolerated.

Thus, I urge you to contact your representative today and ask him or her to co-sponsor and support the Stop Targeting of Political Beliefs by the IRS Act, H.R. 3865.

Sincerely,

Matt Kibbe

President and CEO, 

FreedomWorks

Perhaps the most striking thing about the last five years under the Obama administration has been the “win at any cost” strategy employed by the White House, and the Senate under the leadership of Harry Reid. Rather than the tried and true tactics of bipartisan negotiation and building consensus, the new normal for Washington insiders has been to ram through whatever initiatives they like by whatever means possible.

In the Senate, we have seen Sen. Reid employing arcane loopholes to confirm judicial appointments with a simple majority, stripping the minority party of its right to debate the issue until consensus can be reached. In the Executive Branch, the president has taken to governing by executive order, bypassing the lawmaking process as it is supposed to occur.and at times shutting Congress wholly out of the decision making process.

But worst of all are the regulatory agencies, headed by unelected, unaccountable czars, who are free to issue any number of fiats using nothing but their own discretion. The most recent of these is the outrageous attempt by the Internal Revenue Service to redefine the nature and scope of tax exempt 501(c)(4) organizations in the middle of an election year.

In previous election cycles, including the two in which President Obama successfully won the White House, these groups played a major role in mobilizing and informing voters, and the president was more than happy to accept their help. Now, however, the balance of power has shifted. Organizations representing the tea party ideals of limited government have proven themselves to be a formidable force in the American political landscape, and in the face of the disastrous rollout of the Affordable Care Act and an economy that stubbornly refuses to improve, the administration is looking for a way to shift the odds in 2014.

The new IRS regulation requires that 501(c)(4)s devote the majority of their activities to “social welfare,” where social welfare remains a vaguely-defined term to be determined at the discretion of the IRS. This effectively allows the agency to punish any group it chooses with the denial of tax exemptions, based on an undefined term that could literally mean anything. It is a system that appears to be designed specifically with abuse in mind, and coming on the heels of the IRS’ confessed targeting of tea party groups in the 2012 election, the motivations for the regulation could not be more clear. The moxie required for such a blatant power grab would be almost admirable if it weren’t so scary.

When the IRS got caught interfering in 2012, they placed themselves firmly in opposition to American voters and, indeed, democracy itself. It should therefore not be surprising that the agency should now try to protect itself by rigging elections in favor of friendly incumbents. Bureaucrats are primarily motivated by the preservation of their own power, and nothing is more threatening to that power than public outrage in an election year. Like a cornered animal, the IRS will do anything it can to protect itself by stifling the voices of those who would limit their authority.

In keeping with the administration's distaste for openness and transparency, the new regulation was first announced on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, when the minds of most Americans were fixated on turkey and stuffing than on regulatory shenanigans. By the time the press picked up on the story (which most news outlets still haven’t) the comment period was already half over, giving groups precious little time to defend their First Amendment rights to political speech.

Recognizing that midterm elections typically flip against the incumbent, the IRS is pulling out all the stops to protect itself and its Democratic allies on Capitol Hill. As an unaccountable regulatory agency, the IRS is effectively changing the rules in the middle of a game in which it has a large stake. In any other situation, this would be considered blatant cheating. In politics, it is business as usual.

Don’t let the IRS get away with rigging the system to silence its political opponents. The comment period for the regulation closes on February 27, so we have to act fast. Go to www.IRStarget.com to demand public hearings for this unjust rule, and make your voice heard in Washington.

As you may have heard, the IRS has proposed new rules that would severely restrict grassroots advocacy groups. 

Under current IRS rules, the purpose of tax-exempt 501(c)(4) organizations is educate the public and promote "social welfare" causes, and they can't work primarily as political campaign organizations. Many 501(c)(4) entities are small grassroots organizations ran by local activists that want to participate in the political process. 

The proposed rules would modify the definition of political activity for non-profit organizations. 

Under the proposed IRS rules, here are some things that would be considered political activity: 

• Nonpartisan candidate forums that take place 30 days before a primary

• Nonpartisan candidate forums that take place 60 days before an election

• Any communication mentioning a political candidate or political party within 60 days of an election 

• Nonpartisan civic engagement activities

• Voter registration drives

• Voter education and the preparation and distribution of voter guides mentioning candidates

• Get out the vote efforts and distribution of certain materials promoting candidates

• Calling for the election or defeat of a political candidate

• Any expenditure that must be reported to the Federal Elections Commission (FEC)

• Grants and contributions made by the group to any political group that reports to the FEC

• Grants and contributions made by the group to any 527 or tax exempt group that spends money on candidate-related political activity

The proposed IRS rules are confusing and overly bureaucratic. Many non-profit organizers will have to hire lawyers in order to ensure that they are complying with the complicated rules. Some well-intended activists will undoubtedly break the unclear laws without even knowing it.

FreedomWorks has been encouraging our members to submit comments to the IRS opposing these regulations that will further stifle free speech. Click here to submit your comment to the IRS. The IRS’s deadline for public responses is February 27, 2014.

The IRS shouldn’t be discouraging citizens from participating in the political process and helping to inform voters about their choices. Let’s stop the IRS from infringing on our constitutional right to free speech. 

On today’s edition of the FreedomCast, Andrew Campanella joins me to discuss National School Choice Week, some of the myths and misgivings about school choice and why every conversation about education reform should begin in the living room or at the kitchen table. 

Related Links:

National School Choice Week - How you can get involved

How School Choice Helps Traditional Schools 

Have a suggestion for an upcoming FreedomCast episode, or a comment? Send it to me on twitter @KristinaRibali.

Subscribe to The FreedomCast on iTunes here.

Follow FreedomWorks on twitter and on Faceboook.

Follow today's guest, President of National School Choice Week, @andrewrcamp on twitter. 

Our podcast is fabulously produced by @BradWJackson.

On today’s edition of the FreedomCast, Jim Geraghty joins me to discuss the sudden abandonment of health care reform by Democrats running for reelection, security breaches and more delays for ObamaCare and why millennials are suddenly fleeing the president they helped elect twice. 

Related Links:

Surprise! Obama’s Statements Weren’t Accurate Today

Millenials Abandon Obama and ObamaCare 

Have a suggestion for an upcoming FreedomCast episode, or a comment? Send it to me on twitter @KristinaRibali.

Subscribe to The FreedomCast on iTunes here.

Follow FreedomWorks on twitter and on Faceboook.

Follow today's guest, contributing editor for the National Review @JimGeraghty on twitter. 

Our podcast is fabulously produced by @BradWJackson.