House Looks to Weaken Church-Politicking Ban Via Spending Bill

A key congressional panel approved a spending bill Thursday that includes language diminishing the Internal Revenue Service’s ability to enforce a decades-old ban on overt political activity by houses of worship.

The rider, included in an early draft appropriations bill passed by a subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee, would prevent the Internal Revenue Service from stripping a church of nonprofit status for engaging in prohibited political activities except at the direction of the IRS commissioner. And even then, Congress would have to be notified about the determination within 30 days; after that, the IRS would need to wait an additional 90 days to take action.

The spending measure, which is moving through Congress as part of the federal-budget process, still has a long way to go before final passage. Senate appropriators will draft their own spending bills.

Nonprofit leaders opposed to any weakening of the 63-year-old federal law barring overt political activity by churches and other nonprofit organizations — often referred to as the Johnson Amendment — said the rider is likely just one of several that will appear in appropriations bills this summer.

Those critics expressed vociferous opposition to the move, saying that Republicans on the committee were trying to “sneak” the Johnson Amendment change into a spending bill.

“The extraneous rider approved in the House Financial Services subcommittee today would impose unconstitutional and unreasonable hurdles on enforcing the law that ensures nonpartisanship and must be removed from the bill,” Tim Delaney, president of the National Council of Nonprofits, said in a statement.

Repealing or weakening the Johnson Amendment has become a cause célèbre for some conservative religious organizations ever since President Trump promised during his presidential campaign to undo the law.

In May, the president signed an executive order that would bar the IRS from taking action against overt political speech by churches and faith leaders, though experts have noted the IRS already does little to enforce the law.

Those who have followed the issue for years say that the conditions to weaken or do away with the Johnson Amendment are as fertile as they have been in more than a decade but that it will still be hard for Congress to muster the votes for a full repeal.

Some nonprofit leaders have speculated that a reversal or weakening of the law might appear in Republicans’ promised tax overhaul or in a budget bill.

On Friday, David Thompson, vice president for public policy at the National Council of Nonprofits, said his group and others that represent tax-exempt organizations would be battling for the next several months at least to ensure such language did not appear in the final appropriations bill. Multiple surveys have shown that majorities of religious leaders and of the public do not want nonprofits to engage in overt political activity.

Repealing the Johnson Amendment “is not something with a groundswell of support,” Mr. Thompson said.