Fascist Bill HR 9495 Fails in HR – 3 NJ Dems Vote for It – Would Empower Trump to Defund Non-Profs and Universities Based on False Terrorism Smear

In a victory for the Council on American-Islamic Relations Action (CAIR) and the pro-Palestine movement in general, a “Non-Profit Killer” bill (HR 9495) has failed to get enough votes to move forward today in the house. The bill would defund non-profit advocacy organizations based upon a false smear of being tied to “terrorism” as well as college campuses that allow pro-Palestine protests. Per the House procedures, this vote was a Yay or Nay 2/3 vote meaning that 2/3 of the votes are needed to carry YAY. The vote was

Votes: yea: 256  nay: 145 present: 0 not voting: 33

New Jersey voted as follows:

Yes Gottheimer D, Kean R, Norcross D, Pallone D, Smith R, Van Drew R
No Menendez. Sherrill, McIver, Watson-Coleman
Not Voting Kim

This bill was Republican initiated with 2 Democratic Party sponsors. It was seen as empowering Trump – it would give him arbitrary powers to act on false smears of non-profits and accusations against colleges to defund non-profit organizations and colleges. It is seen as an attempt to establish a tool of repression to be used against opponents of US support for genocide in Gaza and for Israel in general.

Coming out of the 2024 elections – this is one of the first votes. We in NJ are shown that 3 democrats voted for this fascist measure, Gottheimer, Pallone and Norcross. Yet we in NJ were told even by progressives in the effort opposing genocide that we should vote straight Democrat in the house so that Democrats can try to gain a majority. While that did not happen – in the case of these 3 fasscist law supporting Democrat congress members – in the case of protecting the free speech right of NJ pro-Palestine supporters – the Democrats are NOT any obstacle to fascism. They voted to give Trump greater powers to attack organizations that oppose US support for Israel and to force colleges to crack down on student protests by threatening action if they do not stop student protests.

While the bill’s failure is a victory for CAIR and others that called for it to fail, US Congress changes due to the 2024 election results could give a similar bill a greater chance to pass in 2025 so stay tuned and stay on your pviot toes – greater struggles are ahead in the coming months and years.

More details on the bill that failed are n this article: