[Date]

The Honorable Scott Bessent
Secretary
U.S. Department of the Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20220

The Honorable Frank Bisignano
Chief Executive Officer
Internal Revenue Service
1111 Constitution Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20224

To Secretary Bessent and CEO Bisignano:

The undersigned organizations write to object to efforts by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to ignore long-standing federal law by attempting to weaken the Johnson Amendment, which clearly prohibits 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations from endorsing or opposing partisan political candidates for public office. This effort undermines one of the most trusted sections of civil society – nonpartisan houses of worship and charitable nonprofits.

The prohibition on political campaign intervention by 501(c)(3) nonprofits is often called “the Johnson Amendment,” and it was adopted with broad bipartisan support in Congress and signed by a Republican president. For more than 70 years, it has ensured that all tax-exempt charitable nonprofits—including houses of worship—do not become conduits for partisan politics, protecting public trust in religious institutions and preserving the integrity of elections. Weakening the provision threatens to erode public trust, risk policy capture by special interests, and dilute regulatory oversight.

Houses of worship are spaces where members of communities can come together, not be divided along political lines. The Johnson Amendment shares broad support from the American people, who do not want houses of worship to endorse or oppose political candidates.

Churches and faith leaders already have the right to–and often do–speak out about any political, social, or moral issue. Faith leaders have free speech rights to endorse candidates in their personal capacity and can run for political office as individuals.  For many houses of worship, the necessity of speaking out on policy concerns in a strictly nonpartisan manner protects faith communities from being polarized amid contentious election cycles. The independence of these institutions depends on keeping partisanship out of them.

This proposed change to the Johnson Amendment would allow houses of worship and religious organizations to endorse political candidates from the pulpit without risking their tax‑exempt status. If implemented, houses of worship would be subject to intense political pressure to engage in electoral politics from down ballot races and primaries to the presidency, distracting them from their missions. It would also create a loophole for the political donors to enjoy tax-deductible donations for their political campaign contributions, exploiting houses of worship for political gains.

Weakening the Johnson Amendment would jeopardize the integrity of the entire nonprofit community. This proposed action is alarming, as it escalates a broader effort to dismantle the longstanding expectation that charitable organizations stay above the political fray in both practice and principle.

This is not a matter of religious freedom or speech. It is about fundamentally reshaping how political money flows through our system. If successful, it would open the door for political actors to use charitable nonprofits as conduits for anonymous campaign funding, benefiting from substantial tax write-offs while shifting the financial burden onto taxpayers who may disagree with the candidates or causes being supported. Charitable nonprofits are among the last institutions where people from all walks of life come together to tackle local challenges. Undermining the legal safeguards that preserve their neutrality could seriously erode public trust and compromise the sector’s ability to carry out its mission.

We urge the Trump Administration to immediately end its attempt to ignore the Johnson Amendment, reaffirm clear limits on partisan politicking in houses of worship, ensure impartial enforcement across sectors, and protect civil society.

Sincerely,
[List of organizations]