[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 27 (Monday, February 10, 2020)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E159]
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 2020

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, February 10, 2020

  Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, today, I introduce the Increased 
Transparency in 501(c)(4) Organizations Act of 2020. This bill would 
require the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to make publicly available 
the forms organizations that self-declare under Section 501(c)(4) of 
the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) 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, the Protecting Americans 
from Tax Hikes Act of 2015 (the PATH Act) was enacted into law. 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 filed notices, 
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 opinion 
creates a discrepancy between those organizations for which the IRS 
must make publicly available information--all Section 50l(c)(3) 
organizations and 501(c)(4) organizations that applied that for 
status--and self-declared 501(c)(4) organizations. This discrepancy 
appears to have been inadvertently created by the PATH Act.
  My bill would correct this oversight and mandate that the IRS 
publicly disclose any filed Form 8976 upon request, thus allowing the 
public to know which organizations operate under 501(c)(4), as they do 
with 501(c)(3) organizations. 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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