Congressman Blake Moore has introduced the Fair Treatment of Religious Organizations Act, legislation designed to protect religious beliefs and practices while preserving the tax-exempt status of faith-based organizations. The bill ensures that faith-based organizations can continue to apply religious standards to their employees without risking their eligibility for federal funding or contracts and prohibits federal agencies from conditioning tax benefits or funding on a religious organization’s willingness to change its positions on marriage, sexual conduct, or gender identity policies. More specifically, the Fair Treatment of Religious Organizations Act would amend (1) Section 501 of the Internal Revenue Code to prohibit the IRS from considering a religious organization’s beliefs or practices concerning marriage, sexuality, or gender identity when making tax-related determinations and (2) prohibit federal agencies from discriminating against religious employers in grants, contracts, subcontracts, purchase orders, or cooperative agreements based on the organization’s religiously motivated employment decisions.
CLS—as one of many religious organizations interested in creating clear, enforceable standards to ensure that religious beliefs and practices concerning marriage, sexuality, and gender identity cannot be weaponized to strip tax-status or funding eligibility—lent its support to this bill, which would create those standards. “This bill will prevent any future administration from weaponizing the tax code against churches or religious organizations whose message they do not like. Religious communities should never have to fear the U.S. government’s power to destroy through taxation,” CLS President & CEO David Nammo said. Original co-sponsors of the legislation include Representatives David Schweikert (AZ-01), Claudia Tenney (NY-24), Nathaniel Moran (TX-01), Ben Cline (VA-06), Lance Gooden (TX-05), Russ Fulcher (ID-01), and Burgess Owens (UT-04).
