End Citizens United Action Fund President Tiffany Muller released the following statement on news that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Treasury Department have finalized a new rule waiving the requirement for politically-active nonprofits to disclose their major donors to the IRS:
“The Trump Administration’s corruption knows no bounds. The new ruling allows politically-active nonprofits to hide the identity of their wealthy political donors, opening the door for special interests, criminal enterprises and foreign governments to exploit our campaign finance system. Today’s ruling was designed to give wealthy political donors another vehicle to secretly buy our elections.”
In November 2019, End Citizens United Action Fund sent a letter to the IRS stating its opposition to the proposed IRS rule that would allow political nonprofits to hide their big donors from the Agency. The group argued that the rule would hinder the IRS’ ability to identify illegal activity, like foreign money in U.S. politics. The letter urged the IRS to instead put forth proposals that will make government more accountable to the American people.
In July 2018, the Trump Administration reversed a nearly 50 year-old I.R.S. regulation that required political nonprofits to disclose their big donors to the agency, which has allowed the I.R.S. to identify illegal activity, like foreign money in politics. Governor Steve Bullock challenged the decision in court only a few weeks later, personally authoring the lawsuit and appearing as counsel in the case. Since the 2010 Citizens United decision, there has been nearly $1 billion of dark money spent in U.S. federal elections.
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