Statement: H.R. 9495 text in budget is a five-alarm fire for nonprofits nationwide

On Monday, May 12, in the late afternoon eastern time, the manager’s amendment to the House Ways and Means Committee reconciliation mark under H.Con.Res. 114 was released. It includes language from HR 9495 aka the “Nonprofit Killer Bill” from last Congress. See https://waysandmeans.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/SMITMO_017_xml.pdf at Pages 380-88, section 112209.

A previous version of the “Nonprofit Killer Bill” set the Internet on fire this past autumn, with 100+ organizations condemning it and demands for action from the NAACP to Greenpeace.

The budget reconciliation package that includes this language goes to markup on Tuesday, May 13, at 2 pm ET.

The following statement can be attributed to Lia Holland (they/she), Campaigns and Communications Director at Fight for the Future:

“The House is about to hand the Trump administration the ability to strip nonprofits of their 501(c)3 status without any reason or recourse. This is a five-alarm fire for nonprofits nationwide. If the text of last autumn’s H.R. 9495 is passed in the budget, any organization with goals that do not line up with MAGA can be destroyed with a wink from Trump to the Treasury. This terribly thought-out legislation means that under the current administration every environmental, racial justice, LGBTQ+, gender justice, immigration justice, and—particularly—any anti-genocide organization throughout the country may be on the chopping block. And in the future, the same shadow will fall on organizations that sit outside of more liberal ideological lines. This is a first amendment issue—no President should have the right to destroy nonprofits for no reason. We urge lawmakers to insist that section 112209 is struck from the FY 2025 budget reconciliation before it moves forward.

The bill’s proponents have insisted that such provisions are necessary to combat nonprofits that raise funds to support terrorism. That is a bald-faced lie, as there are already laws that prohibit and punish such activities without taking away our civil liberties. In particular, Democratic Committee members Reps. Brad Schneider (IL), Tom Suozzi (NY), and Jimmy Panetta (CA) need to reverse their previous “Yes” vote on H.R. 9495 and recognize the dire threat that their support of section 112209 would pose to all the causes they say they support. In this moment, actions count much more than words. If Democrats capitulate to the wanton destruction of crucial civil society institutions, they had better expect civil society to burn them to the ground for that betrayal.”