PREVENTING IRS ABUSE AND PROTECTING FREE SPEECH ACT

Mr. Speaker, in this House, the Republican leadership has failed to provide sufficient investment in major emergencies facing Americans. They have refused to address the horrible epidemic of gun violence that plagues communities like mine and provides extremists an easy tool to kill dozens of people in minutes.

Further, the Republican leadership has refused to give sufficient funds to combat the Zika virus, risking the health and well-being of Americans. They have refused to raise the minimum wage to help working families improve their quality of life and have advanced efforts to reduce access to school meals for low-income children.

Yet, today, the priority of Republican leadership is a bill to blindfold the Internal Revenue Service to large donors to any 501(c) organizations except under very narrow circumstances, opening the floodgates for unlimited, anonymous donations, possibly from foreign sources.

The confidential disclosure of donors provides an important check on secret money from foreign governments or individuals that could be funneled into our elections. This is not a freedom of speech issue. This is not a fight for American freedom. This is a fight to protect the secret efforts to funnel so much money into certain coffers to undermine the integrity of our election

system.

I strongly oppose this bill and hope the Republican leadership will focus on addressing the true emergencies facing American families, such as gun violence, hunger, poverty, and health. These are real deal issues.