Robert Schmad writes for the Washington Examiner about a recent example of crucial congressional oversight.
Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO), chairman of the congressional committee that oversees the IRS, is demanding the agency strip a progressive nonprofit organization of its tax-exempt status after the Treasury Department determined in October that one of its subsidiaries is a terrorist front group.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, uses Samidoun, which is housed within the Alliance for Global Justice through a fiscal sponsorship agreement, as a vehicle to fundraise in North America and Europe, according to the Treasury Department. Smith, as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, sent a letter to the IRS on Wednesday morning arguing that this kind of proximity to foreign terrorists should disqualify the AFGJ from receiving tax-exemption benefits in the United States.
“This case is not complicated, which makes the failure to revoke the Alliance’s tax-exempt status both concerning and confusing,” the letter reads. ”As you know, if a nonprofit organization conducts substantial activities that do not further its exempt purposes, such activity may result in the loss of the organization’s tax exempt status. Additionally, the IRS has found that conducting illegal activity is inconsistent with tax exemption. … Given Samidoun’s designation by the Treasury as a terrorist organization, coupled with the fact that the Alliance fiscally sponsors and provides support for Samidoun, the IRS must revoke the Alliance’s tax-exempt status immediately.”
The PFLP has ordered suicide bombings, hijacked planes, and shot rockets at civilians, according to the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence.Smith noted in his letter that he previously asked the IRS to strip the AFGJ of its tax-exempt status, alongside other nonprofit organizations involved in pro-Hamas demonstrations following the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel.
