Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of my bill, H.R. 9495, the Stop-Terror Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act, which has been the subject of political hysteria since the election of President Trump on November 5. I want to be clear to my Democratic colleagues, most of whom supported Congressman Kustoff's legislation last April, about what this bill actually does. The bill does two things: It allows the IRS to waive penalties for late taxes on Americans held hostage abroad. While the IRS can waive penalties on the back end when the taxpayer returns home, this would allow them to do it on the front end to ensure that returning hostages and their families, who have endured unimaginable hardship, don't have the burden of having to deal with it upon return. It directs the IRS to revoke the tax-exempt status of a nonprofit found to be providing financial support to a terrorist organization. Right now, an entity must be deemed a terrorist organization itself to lose its tax-exempt status. This bill says that if a nonprofit provides material support to a designated terrorist group, they will also lose that status. This bill and parts of this bill have received strong bipartisan support on multiple occasions from this Congress. H.R. 9495 passed unanimously out of Ways and Means in September by a vote of 38-0, including and with the support of Ranking Member Richard Neal, along with Mr. Doggett.…”