Protect The 1st Foundation
  • About
    • Leadership
  • Issues
  • Scorecards
  • News
  • Take Action
    • Educational Choice for Children Act
    • PRESS Act
    • Save Oak Flat Act
  • DONATE
  • About
    • Leadership
  • Issues
  • Scorecards
  • News
  • Take Action
    • Educational Choice for Children Act
    • PRESS Act
    • Save Oak Flat Act
  • DONATE
Picture

The Safeguarding Charity Act: Sen. Lankford, Rep. Steube Protect Charities from Federal Control

4/15/2025

 
Picture
Imagine you run a tax-exempt charity that houses, feeds, and cares for the poor and the homeless, or perhaps educates children from low-income families. You have the resources to operate your charity through the kindness of your donors. You also are grateful that your tax-exempt status helps you stretch those donor dollars for your social mission.

Then one day you begin to receive demands from the government to certify compliance with myriad federal regulations. The cost of painstakingly documenting compliance would make a huge dent in your budget. Worse, if you are found to be out of compliance with the bureaucracy’s elaborate standards, your tax-exempt status will be revoked.

This is the implied threat of the 2022 rulings by two federal district courts that held that the tax-exempt status of charities means that they should be considered recipients of federal financial assistance. One of these cases, Buettner-Hartsoe v. Baltimore Lutheran High School Association d/b/a Concordia Preparatory School, went to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Last year, the Fourth reversed the lower court’s ruling:

“Tax exemption is not ‘Federal financial assistance.’ This is not a novel concept. Indeed, since Title IX’s inception over fifty years ago, it has never been applied to organizations based solely on their tax-exempt status. And for good reason … Tax exemption, however, is the withholding of a tax burden, rather than the affirmative grant of funds. Thus, tax-exemption is not ‘Federal financial assistance.’”

You might brush your hands and say, ‘all well and good and that is that!’ But in American law these days, that is never that. The appetite for government control is as strong as ever. All it takes is the right case and the right judge to set this precedent on its ear and bind charities across the land to burdensome regulation.

We have certainly seen at the state level, from Wisconsin to Maine to California – a desire by regulators to treat charities, especially religious-based charities, in discriminatory ways. This impulse was occasionally on display during the previous administration in regulatory lurches toward increasing government control of charities.

To forestall this movement once and for all, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) and Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) have introduced the Safeguarding Charity Act to clarify that tax-exempt organizations should not be treated as recipients of federal financial assistance.

“Tax-exempt status is not the same as receiving federal funding, and it should be not used as political leverage against the nonprofits that feed, clothe, house, and counsel those in need in Oklahoma and across the nation,” Sen. Lankford said. “We should be focused on enabling the work of these organizations – not burdening them with unnecessary and costly federal requirements.”

“Radical judges should not have the authority to twist federal law and force religious institutions to choose between their convictions and their compliance,” Rep. Steube said. “This bill is about protecting churches, religious schools, and charities from federal overreach.”
​

Though prior versions of this bill failed to pass, the stars may be lining up for the 119th Congress to pass this bill and to put this question to rest for all time.

    STAY UP TO DATE

Subscribe to Newsletter
DONATE & HELP US PROTECT YOUR FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS

Comments are closed.

    Archives

    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021

    Categories

    All
    2022 Year In Review
    2023 Year In Review
    2024 Year In Review
    Amicus Briefs
    Analysis
    Book Banning
    Campus Speech
    Censorship
    Congress
    Court Hearings
    Donor Privacy
    Due Process
    First Amendment
    First Amendment Online
    Freedom Of Press
    Freedom Of Religion
    Freedom Of Speech
    Government Transparency
    In The Media
    Journalism
    Law Enforcement
    Legal
    Legislation
    Legislative Agenda
    Letters To Congress
    Motions
    News
    Online Speech
    Opinion
    Parental Rights
    PRESS Act
    PT1 Amicus Briefs
    Save Oak Flat
    School Choice
    SCOTUS
    Section 230
    Speaking Of The First Amendment
    Supreme Court

    RSS Feed

we  the  people.

LET  YOUR  VOICE  BE  HEARD:


ABOUT

Who We Are

​Leadership

ISSUES

1st Amendment

TAKE ACTION

Donate

​Contact Us
® Copyright 2024 Protect The 1st Foundation