The House just passed a bill that would give the Trump Administration unfettered power to destroy nonprofits. Despite hundreds of thousands of people calling their Representatives to urge them to vote no on this dangerous bill, H.R. 9495 passed the House. This is a setback, but we’re not done. We will fight to block this bill in the Senate, and keep fighting to make sure lawmakers across the aisle understand that H.R. 9495 is a threat to democracy, especially for marginalized communities. We’re building momentum: thanks to a massive public outcry, 39 Representatives changed their vote from “yes” to “no”–an incredible change thanks to YOU and the hundreds of thousands of others who took action! We won’t back down and will keep you looped in on the fight to protect dissent!

If enacted, H.R. 9495 would give the federal government unprecedented power to silence dissent by unilaterally shutting down, with no evidentiary or fair-process requirements, any nonprofit organization critical of the administration and alleged to have provided “material support” to terrorism – accusations we’ve seen weaponized to silent dissent on critical issues, including support for Palestinian lives and racial and environmental justice.

“Despite a massive public outcry, today the House passed a bill that would give the Trump Administration unfettered power to destroy nonprofits that don’t back its agenda. If enacted, H.4. 9495 would allow a political appointee to silence dissent by unilaterally shutting down, with no evidentiary or fair-process requirements, any nonprofit organization critical of the administration and alleged to have provided ‘material support’ to terrorism – accusations we’ve seen weaponized to silent dissent on critical issues, including support for Palestinian lives and racial and environmental justice. We are disappointed, but will continue to speak out in Congress and in the streets to protect our communities from all attempts to silence or criminalize us.” -Sumayyah Waheed