The lame duck post-election weeks of Congress are invariably where every bad idea is resurrected, major bills are lumped together without due consideration, and every pet policy gets a pass if it will help Members get out of town sooner. 2018 is proving to be no exception. Taxpayers can now add “invasion of privacy” to the litany of end-of-year measures that rarely fail to disappoint.
On top of everything else that needs to get done, Senators Tester (D-MT) and Wyden (D-OR) plan to bring up S.J. Res. 64, a resolution that would overturn an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) decision to end the collection of private, personal donor information from certain not-for-profit organizations - those whose donors don’t receive any tax benefit from their gifts. Collecting unnecessary donor information has led to harmful privacy breaches and discrimination against individuals for expressing their First Amendment rights through support of organizations and issues that reflect their values.
Already, there’s nothing that could impede the IRS from obtaining any information they need on a case by case basis. But turning over more data wholesale to an agency that has already proved untrustworthy with taxpayer information, could open the door to even more restrictions on free speech.
NTU, which has consistently opposed these power-grabs on the part of the IRS, wrote as much in a letter to the Senate earlier this fall opposing S.J. Res. 64:
The IRS has a poor track record for protecting confidential information. IRS employees have filed fraudulent Federal income tax returns, accidentally leaked personal information of taxpayers, unlawfully accessed personal information, and even purposefully leaked the donor list of a nonprofit organization, along with nonprofit status applications.
The persistent threat of unauthorized disclosures, volitional or not, could create a significant barrier to donating and have a chilling effect on the free speech of both individuals and nonprofit organizations, disrupting our robust charitable sector that serves such an essential role in our society. The Treasury is right to take steps to reduce opportunities to exploit private data, particularly when doing so will not negatively impact its administrative role.
NTU continues to oppose S.J. Res. 64, and will be urging all Senators to do likewise. It’s important that this important issue isn’t overlooked in the typical rush to get home.