[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 197 (Thursday, December 13, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1671]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 INTRODUCTION OF THE INCREASED TRANSPARENCY IN 501(c)(4) ORGANIZATIONS 
                              ACT OF 2018

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, December 13, 2018

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, today, I introduce the Increased 
Transparency in 501(c)(4) Organizations Act of 2018. This bill would 
require the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to make publicly available 
the forms organizations self-declaring under Section 501(c)(4) of the 
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) must file with the IRS. Americans have the 
right to know which organizations are operating under this section of 
the IRC.
  To be eligible for tax-exempt status under 501(c)(4), organizations, 
often referred to as ``social welfare organizations,'' must be 
``devoted exclusively to charitable, educational, or recreational 
purposes.'' They can choose to apply for 501(c)(4) status from the IRS, 
or they can simply self-declare. Previously, organizations seeking to 
self-declare their 501(c)(4) status were not required even to notify 
the IRS of their existence. In 2015, however, Congress enacted the 
Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015 (the PATH Act). Under 
that law, an organization seeking to self-declare their 501(c)(4) 
status now must file a notice with the IRS that it is operating under 
this section. The PATH Act did not, however, make the new notice form, 
Form 8976, subject to public disclosure.
  The IRS has opined that Form 8976 cannot be made available under the 
Freedom of Information Act or other disclosure laws. This creates a 
discrepancy between all organizations operating under Section 501(c)(3) 
and 501(c)(4) organizations that applied that for status, for which the 
IRS must make publicly available information on their existence, and 
self-declared 501(c)(4) organizations. This discrepancy appears to have 
been inadvertently created by Congress when it passed the PATH Act.
  My bill would correct this oversight and mandate that the IRS 
publicly disclose Form 8976 upon request, thus allowing the public to 
know which organizations exist under 501(c)(4). In the aftermath of the 
Citizens United Supreme Court decision, which allows for unlimited 
expenditure in political campaigns from these ``social welfare'' 
groups, this bill is especially important to allow for greater 
transparency. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

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