[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 118 (Monday, July 22, 2024)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E748-E749]
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 2024

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, July 22, 2024

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, today, I introduce the Increased 
Transparency in 501(c)(4) Organizations Act of 2024. 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 apply for 501(c)(4) status, or they can self-
declare. Previously, organizations seeking to self-declare were not 
required to notify the IRS of their existence. In 2015, however, the 
Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015 (PATH Act), which 
required an organization seeking to self-declare to file a notice with 
the IRS, was enacted into law. 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

[[Page E749]]

501(c)(3) organizations and 501(c)(4) organizations that applied for 
that status--and self-declared 501(c)(4) organizations. This 
discrepancy appears to have been inadvertently created by the PATH Act.
  This bill would fix this discrepancy by requiring the IRS to 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 
organizations that operate under 501(c)(3). In the aftermath of the 
Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, which allows unlimited 
expenditures in political campaigns by these ``social welfare'' 
organizations, greater transparency is needed.
  I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

                          ____________________