Miller Backs Legislation to Stop Administration from Silencing its Critics

Press Release

Today, U.S. Representative Candice Miller (MI-10) announced her co-sponsorship of legislation prohibiting the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from enforcing new proposed rules that could unlawfully restrict the First Amendment Rights of 501(c)(4) tax-exempt organizations -- specifically ones the Administration disagrees with.

Under the proposed rules, the IRS -- an agency currently under investigation for the inappropriate targeting of conservative organizations -- would have the ability to revoke an organization's tax-exempt status based on its own contrived definitions of "political activity." To block this partisan overreach by the Administration, Miller cosponsored the Stop Targeting of Political Beliefs by the IRS Act of 2014 (H.R.3865), legislation prohibiting for one year the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) and IRS from finalizing and enforcing its proposed 501(c)(4) regulations so ongoing investigations into past IRS actions can be completed.

"The American people do not want to give the IRS additional power to regulate the free political speech of groups while it is under continuing investigation for politically motivated targeting of conservative organizations whose political views are at odds with the Administration. The IRS simply has not proven that it is either competent or trustworthy enough to make the determination as to what type of activity should be considered political, and the IRS must not be given any additional power until the full extent of previous wrong doing is known," Miller said. "Any rule, regulation or law that could impact free speech should be the result of a bipartisan, deliberative process, not one so clearly intended to further silence critics of the Administration."

Background on Stop Targeting of Political Beliefs by the IRS Act of 2014 (H.R. 3865):
* Under proposed Treasury regulations (published November 29, 2013), 501(c)(4) organizations would not be able engage in voter registration and get-out-the-vote activities, or convene candidate forums without jeopardizing their exempt status even though those activities are expressly allowed for 501(c)(3) organizations.
* H.R. 3865, Introduced by Rep. Dave Camp (MI-4), would prohibit Treasury, including the IRS, from finalizing the proposed rules for one year in order to allow for the completion of the IRS targeting investigation and a thorough public discussion, including a review of public comments related to the proposed regulations.

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