The PROOF Act (H.R. 10258) would codify mandatory due-process steps the IRS must follow before revoking any nonprofit's tax-exempt status — introduced in direct response to a Trump administration plan to strip progressive organizations including the Open Society Foundations, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and CAIR of their 501(c) status.
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What It Does
The PROOF Act amends the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to add a new section (which the bill's text identifies as governing the process for examination of certain tax-exempt entities) establishing statutory due-process requirements the IRS must complete before revoking any organization's tax-exempt status under Section 501(a). Specifically, once an examination begins, the IRS must provide: advance written notice; a written explanation of the legal basis for the examination; specific document requests rather than open-ended demands; and a meaningful opportunity for the organization to respond. If the IRS moves toward revoking status, it must issue a proposed adverse determination letter — and if the organization requests a conference within 30 days of that letter, the IRS is required to hold one before finalizing any decision. The bill also sets a sufficiency standard: a revocation cannot be finalized unless the IRS examination actually supports the decision and the organization's due-process rights were honored throughout the process. All of these requirements would apply to examinations that began after December 31, 2024 — covering the current round of audits. The key shift from current law is that these protections would be statutory (written into the Internal Revenue Code), not just administrative policy — meaning they cannot be quietly waived or altered by IRS leadership or a White House directive without Congress acting.
The Real Story
This is a fight over whether the executive branch can direct the IRS to financially defund organizations it opposes politically, without a court-ordered process first. The Trump administration and its supporters argue that the targeted groups have genuinely crossed legal lines — organizing protests that produced civil-law violations, facilitating illegal immigration — and that using the tax code to hold them accountable is legitimate enforcement. Democrats, civil liberties groups, and some libertarians counter that the "substantial illegal purpose" definition is so vague it can be stretched to cover virtually any advocacy organization that has ever been near a protest, and that stripping status without rigorous due process is the same IRS-as-weapon playbook used against conservatives a decade ago. The core disagreement is not really about nonprofits — it is about whether the executive branch can use administrative power to financially destroy political opponents before courts can intervene.
Who Benefits
- Organizations currently on the IRS audit list — including the Open Society Foundations (George Soros), the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, the Athena Coalition, MediaJustice, and the Strategic Organizing Center (an SEIU project) — would gain statutory rights to notice, explanation, a conference, and an appeal before losing status.
- The broader nonprofit sector. All tax-exempt organizations — including conservative churches and advocacy groups — would gain statutory due process protections that are currently only administrative policy (meaning they can be quietly changed without an act of Congress). Americans Against Government Censorship (AAGC) explicitly endorsed the bill on this bipartisan basis.
- Future administrations of either party. Statutory protections apply regardless of which party controls the White House, meaning conservative nonprofits would also benefit in the event of a future Democratic administration using the same playbook.
- Tax lawyers and nonprofit compliance consultants, who would see a new statutory process generating examination-stage legal work.
Who Gets Hurt
- The Trump administration's planned enforcement timeline. New mandatory conference and response requirements would add procedural steps to any revocation proceeding, slowing or delaying the audit blueprint Bessent is reportedly finalizing.
- Legitimate IRS enforcement cases. Additional procedural requirements apply to all examinations, not only politically motivated ones — adding hurdles even where the IRS has clear evidence of actual 501(c) violations.
- Conservative nonprofits in a perverse way. By not passing, the current situation leaves all nonprofits — including right-leaning ones — without statutory protection. As the Cato Institute noted, the exact same administrative vulnerability that now threatens progressive groups is the same one that left conservative Tea Party groups unprotected during the Obama-era IRS targeting scandal.
Red Flags
- Retroactive reach with no floor vote in sight. The bill's protections apply to examinations begun after December 31, 2024 — a date already in the past — meaning organizations whose audits are already underway could invoke statutory rights immediately. Critics read this as designed specifically to interrupt active proceedings. But none of this matters unless the bill passes, and with Republicans controlling both the House and the Ways and Means Committee, it has no current path to a floor vote.
- Doesn't touch the root cause. The bill adds procedural requirements to IRS examinations but does not repeal or challenge the underlying 2025 executive order. Even if enacted, the administration could argue that the executive order's definition of "substantial illegal purpose" satisfies whatever legal basis is required, and continue proceedings under a different procedural framing.
- Vague executive order standard creates ongoing exposure. The definitions in the 2025 executive order — especially violations of state tort laws like "public nuisance" or "disorderly conduct" — are broad enough to reach labor unions (the SEIU and its Strategic Organizing Center are reportedly on the list), immigration legal aid groups, and any advocacy organization that participated in protests where some attendees were cited for minor civil offenses.
- No Senate companion bill identified. Without a parallel track in the Senate, even a hypothetical House passage would go nowhere.
- Ambiguity in "sufficiently support the decision" standard. The bill requires that an IRS examination "sufficiently support" a revocation before it can be finalized, but the bill does not define what evidentiary threshold meets that standard, leaving future courts to interpret it.
Hidden Riders
- The retroactive effective date (December 31, 2024) is the most consequential embedded provision. It is framed as a normal effective date but functions as an immediate shield for organizations already under examination — organizations that may have been audited for up to two years without the statutory rights this bill creates. If enacted, any affected organization could potentially move to challenge the procedural validity of the entire prior examination.
- None identified beyond the retroactive date mechanism.
Current Status
H.R. 10258 was introduced on September 3, 2026 by Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), joined by Rep. Terri A. Sewell (D-AL), in the 119th Congress (2025–2026). The bill is at its earliest possible stage: introduced and referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means. It has not received a committee hearing, a markup session, or any floor vote. The designation "IH" in GovInfo confirms it is the original introduced version — no amendments have been filed. Republicans hold the House majority and chair the Ways and Means Committee, giving them full control over whether the bill advances. No companion Senate bill has been identified. The 119th Congress ends in January 2027; any bill not enacted by then must be reintroduced in the 120th Congress.
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Sources:
- [H.R.10258 — Congress.gov](https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/10258)
- [H.R. 10258 (IH) — GovInfo](https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/BILLS-119hr10258ih)
- [Doggett and Sewell Introduce PROOF Act — Doggett.house.gov](https://doggett.house.gov/media/press-releases/doggett-and-sewell-introduce-proof-act-stop-weaponization-irs-against)
- [Lloyd Doggett Aims to Protect Nonprofits from IRS Revocation — Texas Politics](https://texaspolitics.com/2026/09/08/lloyd-doggett-aims-to-protect-nonprofits-from-irs-revocation/)
- [AAGC Applauds Reps. Doggett and Sewell Bill — Stop Government Censorship](https://www.stopgovernmentcensorship.org/press-releases-and-statements/aagc-applauds-reps-doggett-and-sewell-bill-to-guarantee-fairness-for-nonprofitsnbsp)
- [Nonprofit Champion, September 8, 2026 — National Council of Nonprofits](https://www.councilofnonprofits.org/nonprofit-champion-september-8-2026-0)
- [Trump Weaponizes the IRS Against Liberal Nonprofits — The American Prospect](https://prospect.org/2026/08/31/trump-weaponizes-irs-against-liberal-nonprofits/)
- [Scott Bessent Is Coming for Soros, CAIR, the SPLC — Townhall](https://townhall.com/news/dmitri-bolt/2026/08/28/scott-bessent-preparing-to-revoke-tax-exempt-status-of-open-society-foundation-cair-and-splc-n2682053)
- [An Ideologically Driven Plan To Target Nonprofits? — Cato Institute](https://www.cato.org/blog/ideologically-driven-plan-target-nonprofits)
- [How the IRS Can—and Cannot—Revoke Federal Tax-Exempt Status — American Bar Association](https://www.americanbar.org/groups/business_law/resources/business-law-today/2025-may/how-irs-revoke-federal-tax-exempt-status/)
- [Nonprofits Under Fire: How the IRS Can and Cannot Revoke Federal Tax-Exempt Status — Tenenbaum Law Group](https://www.tenenbaumlegal.com/nonprofits-under-fire-how-the-irs-can-and-cannot-revoke-federal-tax-exempt-status/)
- [Executive Order Highlights Risks to Nonprofit Tax-Exempt Status — Husch Blackwell](https://www.huschblackwell.com/newsandinsights/executive-order-highlights-risks-to-nonprofit-tax-exempt-status)
- [H.R. 10148 — Safeguarding America's Nonprofits Act, Congress.gov](https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/10148)
Bill hr10258ihprotectingtherightsoforganizationsfairlyactof2026
Bill decoded. Results are now available.
High alert
The PROOF Act (H.R. 10258) would codify mandatory due-process steps the IRS must follow before revoking any nonprofit's tax-exempt status — introduced in direct response to a Trump administration plan to strip progressive organizations including the Open Society Foundations, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and CAIR of their 501(c) status.
---
Why now
The bill was introduced on September 3, 2026, within days of news reports (breaking August 28–31) that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the IRS were finalizing a sweeping audit blueprint to revoke the tax-exempt status of a specific list of progressive and advocacy organizations. The legal vehicle for the crackdown is a 2025 Trump executive order targeting nonprofits the administration accuses of operating with a "substantial illegal purpose" — a category defined to include organizations alleged to aid illegal immigration, support terrorism, facilitate illegal discrimination, or violate state tort laws including trespassing, disorderly conduct, and public nuisance. That executive order gave the executive branch a new legal argument to initiate revocation proceedings that had no direct statutory predecessor, exposing the gap in current nonprofit protections.
The real story
This is a fight over whether the executive branch can direct the IRS to financially defund organizations it opposes politically, without a court-ordered process first. The Trump administration and its supporters argue that the targeted groups have genuinely crossed legal lines — organizing protests that produced civil-law violations, facilitating illegal immigration — and that using the tax code to hold them accountable is legitimate enforcement. Democrats, civil liberties groups, and some libertarians counter that the "substantial illegal purpose" definition is so vague it can be stretched to cover virtually any advocacy organization that has ever been near a protest, and that stripping status without rigorous due process is the same IRS-as-weapon playbook used against conservatives a decade ago. The core disagreement is not really about nonprofits — it is about whether the executive branch can use administrative power to financially destroy political opponents before courts can intervene.
Red flags
▸ Retroactive reach with no floor vote in sight. The bill's protections apply to examinations begun after December 31, 2024 — a date already in the past — meaning organizations whose audits are already underway could invoke statutory rights immediately. Critics read this as designed specifically to interrupt active proceedings. But none of this matters unless the bill passes, and with Republicans controlling both the House and the Ways and Means Committee, it has no current path to a floor vote.
▸ Doesn't touch the root cause. The bill adds procedural requirements to IRS examinations but does not repeal or challenge the underlying 2025 executive order. Even if enacted, the administration could argue that the executive order's definition of "substantial illegal purpose" satisfies whatever legal basis is required, and continue proceedings under a different procedural framing.
▸ Vague executive order standard creates ongoing exposure. The definitions in the 2025 executive order — especially violations of state tort laws like "public nuisance" or "disorderly conduct" — are broad enough to reach labor unions (the SEIU and its Strategic Organizing Center are reportedly on the list), immigration legal aid groups, and any advocacy organization that participated in protests where some attendees were cited for minor civil offenses.
▸ No Senate companion bill identified. Without a parallel track in the Senate, even a hypothetical House passage would go nowhere.
▸ Ambiguity in "sufficiently support the decision" standard. The bill requires that an IRS examination "sufficiently support" a revocation before it can be finalized, but the bill does not define what evidentiary threshold meets that standard, leaving future courts to interpret it.
Who benefits
• Organizations currently on the IRS audit list — including the Open Society Foundations (George Soros), the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, the Athena Coalition, MediaJustice, and the Strategic Organizing Center (an SEIU project) — would gain statutory rights to notice, explanation, a conference, and an appeal before losing status.
• The broader nonprofit sector. All tax-exempt organizations — including conservative churches and advocacy groups — would gain statutory due process protections that are currently only administrative policy (meaning they can be quietly changed without an act of Congress). Americans Against Government Censorship (AAGC) explicitly endorsed the bill on this bipartisan basis.
• Future administrations of either party. Statutory protections apply regardless of which party controls the White House, meaning conservative nonprofits would also benefit in the event of a future Democratic administration using the same playbook.
• Tax lawyers and nonprofit compliance consultants, who would see a new statutory process generating examination-stage legal work.
Who gets hurt
• The Trump administration's planned enforcement timeline. New mandatory conference and response requirements would add procedural steps to any revocation proceeding, slowing or delaying the audit blueprint Bessent is reportedly finalizing.
• Legitimate IRS enforcement cases. Additional procedural requirements apply to all examinations, not only politically motivated ones — adding hurdles even where the IRS has clear evidence of actual 501(c) violations.
• Conservative nonprofits in a perverse way. By not passing, the current situation leaves all nonprofits — including right-leaning ones — without statutory protection. As the Cato Institute noted, the exact same administrative vulnerability that now threatens progressive groups is the same one that left conservative Tea Party groups unprotected during the Obama-era IRS targeting scandal.
What it does
The PROOF Act amends the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to add a new section (which the bill's text identifies as governing the process for examination of certain tax-exempt entities) establishing statutory due-process requirements the IRS must complete before revoking any organization's tax-exempt status under Section 501(a). Specifically, once an examination begins, the IRS must provide: advance written notice; a written explanation of the legal basis for the examination; specific document requests rather than open-ended demands; and a meaningful opportunity for the organization to respond. If the IRS moves toward revoking status, it must issue a proposed adverse determination letter — and if the organization requests a conference within 30 days of that letter, the IRS is required to hold one before finalizing any decision. The bill also sets a sufficiency standard: a revocation cannot be finalized unless the IRS examination actually supports the decision and the organization's due-process rights were honored throughout the process. All of these requirements would apply to examinations that began after December 31, 2024 — covering the current round of audits. The key shift from current law is that these protections would be statutory (written into the Internal Revenue Code), not just administrative policy — meaning they cannot be quietly waived or altered by IRS leadership or a White House directive without Congress acting.
Precedent
The closest historical parallel is the 2010–2013 Tea Party IRS targeting scandal, in which the IRS applied heightened scrutiny to conservative groups applying for 501(c)(4) status by flagging keywords like "tea party" and "patriots." That scandal produced congressional investigations, a Treasury Inspector General report, Lois Lerner's invocation of the Fifth Amendment, and eventual legal settlements — but no statutory changes to codify procedural protections against future targeting. That failure to legislate after the Tea Party scandal is precisely the gap the PROOF Act now tries to fill. Even further back, Nixon's attempted use of the IRS as a political weapon against his enemies list was one of the articles of impeachment drawn up in 1974 — also unresolved by statute. The pattern across both eras is the same: administrative protections proved insufficient; political outrage came and went; the statutory gap remained. International comparison: in the UK, the Charity Commission operates under formal statutory due-process standards for revocation, providing a model for what codified protection looks like in practice.
Current status
H.R. 10258 was introduced on September 3, 2026 by Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), joined by Rep. Terri A. Sewell (D-AL), in the 119th Congress (2025–2026). The bill is at its earliest possible stage: introduced and referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means. It has not received a committee hearing, a markup session, or any floor vote. The designation "IH" in GovInfo confirms it is the original introduced version — no amendments have been filed. Republicans hold the House majority and chair the Ways and Means Committee, giving them full control over whether the bill advances. No companion Senate bill has been identified. The 119th Congress ends in January 2027; any bill not enacted by then must be reintroduced in the 120th Congress.
---
Sources:
- [H.R.10258 — Congress.gov](https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/10258)
- [H.R. 10258 (IH) — GovInfo](https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/BILLS-119hr10258ih)
- [Doggett and Sewell Introduce PROOF Act — Doggett.house.gov](https://doggett.house.gov/media/press-releases/doggett-and-sewell-introduce-proof-act-stop-weaponization-irs-against)
- [Lloyd Doggett Aims to Protect Nonprofits from IRS Revocation — Texas Politics](https://texaspolitics.com/2026/09/08/lloyd-doggett-aims-to-protect-nonprofits-from-irs-revocation/)
- [AAGC Applauds Reps. Doggett and Sewell Bill — Stop Government Censorship](https://www.stopgovernmentcensorship.org/press-releases-and-statements/aagc-applauds-reps-doggett-and-sewell-bill-to-guarantee-fairness-for-nonprofitsnbsp)
- [Nonprofit Champion, September 8, 2026 — National Council of Nonprofits](https://www.councilofnonprofits.org/nonprofit-champion-september-8-2026-0)
- [Trump Weaponizes the IRS Against Liberal Nonprofits — The American Prospect](https://prospect.org/2026/08/31/trump-weaponizes-irs-against-liberal-nonprofits/)
- [Scott Bessent Is Coming for Soros, CAIR, the SPLC — Townhall](https://townhall.com/news/dmitri-bolt/2026/08/28/scott-bessent-preparing-to-revoke-tax-exempt-status-of-open-society-foundation-cair-and-splc-n2682053)
- [An Ideologically Driven Plan To Target Nonprofits? — Cato Institute](https://www.cato.org/blog/ideologically-driven-plan-target-nonprofits)
- [How the IRS Can—and Cannot—Revoke Federal Tax-Exempt Status — American Bar Association](https://www.americanbar.org/groups/business_law/resources/business-law-today/2025-may/how-irs-revoke-federal-tax-exempt-status/)
- [Nonprofits Under Fire: How the IRS Can and Cannot Revoke Federal Tax-Exempt Status — Tenenbaum Law Group](https://www.tenenbaumlegal.com/nonprofits-under-fire-how-the-irs-can-and-cannot-revoke-federal-tax-exempt-status/)
- [Executive Order Highlights Risks to Nonprofit Tax-Exempt Status — Husch Blackwell](https://www.huschblackwell.com/newsandinsights/executive-order-highlights-risks-to-nonprofit-tax-exempt-status)
- [H.R. 10148 — Safeguarding America's Nonprofits Act, Congress.gov](https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/10148)
What to watch
The bill's practical future is tied to the November 2026 midterm elections — if Democrats retake the House, it could move through Ways and Means in the new Congress starting January 2027. In the near term, the real action is in federal courts, where the organizations named in the IRS audit blueprint are expected to file for injunctions challenging revocations under existing administrative law (the Administrative Procedure Act) rather than waiting for Congress. Citizens concerned about this issue should contact members of the House Ways and Means Committee — currently chaired by Republicans — since that is where the bill is stalled, and where any hearing would have to originate.
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