Doggett, Sewell Renew Demand for Answers as Trump Administration Moves to Strip Nonprofits of Tax-Exempt Status

IRS confirmed in April that the Members’ oversight letter had been assigned for response — four months later, not one of sixteen questions has been answered

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) and Rep. Terri A. Sewell (D-AL), Ranking Member of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight, today renewed their demand that Internal Revenue Service Chief Executive Officer Frank Bisignano answer sixteen outstanding questions about the Administration’s use of the IRS against tax-exempt organizations and their donors. The Members first wrote to Bisignano on April 14, 2026. The IRS confirmed receipt on April 22 and told the Members’ staff that the letter had been “assigned for response.” No response has ever come.

The renewed demand follows an August 27 New York Postreport that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and his aides are preparing audits, revocations of tax-exempt status, and back-tax and penalty assessments against charitable organizations identified by their perceived opposition to the Administration rather than by any violation of the tax laws. The reported vehicle is a September 2025 presidential memorandum directing scrutiny of nonprofits alleged to operate for a “substantial illegal purpose.”

“With an alarming new report that the Trump regime is weaponizing the Tax Code against civic organizations that oppose the Trump agenda, we are renewing our demand for answers from the IRS. In response to my direct questions in March this year, Mr. Bisignano insisted ‘100 percent’ that he would not initiate audits, investigations, or revocations of tax-exempt status based on political targeting. Yet, he is stonewalling our requests for information about this potential wrongdoing. We need answers now, not after Trump’s attempts to destroy important nonprofit organizations are implemented,” said Rep. Doggett.

“The American people will not stand for Donald Trump’s blatant attempts to weaponize the federal government to attack organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center - whose mission is to protect the civil rights of all communities and defend our democracy against violent extremism,” said Rep. Sewell.  “It is a federal crime for political leaders to direct the IRS to investigate or audit individual taxpayers, and Congress must know why charitable organizations that are not aligned with Donald Trump’s political agenda are being targeted.”

The Members’ letter renews all sixteen requests from April and asks the Service to identify the office to which the letter was assigned, the status of that response, and every official at the IRS, Treasury, or the White House who has handled it.

Opposition to the reported campaign is not confined to one party. Writing the day after the Post report, Walter Olson of the conservative Cato Institute observed that “[t]he IRS is not supposed to apply an ideological line in revoking tax exemption,” and cautioned: “Protect your opponents’ rights, and when the wheel turns, you may find that you’ve protected your own as well.”

BACKGROUND

• Section 7217 of the Internal Revenue Code makes it a federal crime for the President, the Vice President, the Treasury Secretary, and members of their staff to request, directly or indirectly, that the IRS audit or investigate any particular taxpayer. It also requires IRS officers and employees to report any such request to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.
• At a March 4, 2026 Ways and Means Committee hearing, Rep. Doggett asked Bisignano whether he had received “either directly or indirectly any communication from anyone in the Trump regime suggesting that specific tax-exempt organizations should be scrutinized because of their political views.” Bisignano answered: “No.” Asked to commit that under his leadership the IRS would not initiate audits, investigations, or revocations of tax-exempt status based on political targeting, he answered: “100%. We’re here to administer the law, uphold the law.”
• The April 14, 2026 letter, signed by Doggett, Sewell, and fourteen colleagues, asked the IRS whether the President, the Treasury Secretary, or their staff had requested audits or investigations of particular taxpayers; who assembled the reported list of investigative targets; whether protected taxpayer information had been disclosed to the Department of Justice, Treasury, or White House staff; and what protections exist for IRS employees who decline to participate in politically motivated enforcement.
• In October 2025, Ways and Means Democrats asked the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration to investigate reports that the Administration was encouraging the IRS to facilitate criminal investigations of Democratic donors and “left-leaning” nonprofit groups.

Full text of the letter is available here.

Full text of the April 2026 letter is available here.

New York Post reporting on the Trump administration’s plans to crack down on nonprofits is available here.

Rep. Doggett Questions Trump IRS CEO Bisignano

Doggett: If you would sir, with a simple yes or no, tell us whether you have received either directly or indirectly any communication from anyone in the Trump regime suggesting that specific tax-exempt organizations should be scrutinized because of their political views? 

Bisignano: No.

Doggett. You have not. Good. And will you commit today that under your leadership the IRS will not initiate audits, investigations, or revocations of tax-exempt status based on political targeting?

Bisignano: 100%. We're here to administer the law, uphold the law, uphold the law.

Doggett: Thank you. Just to be clear what I'm talking about though, in that regard, the Wall Street Journal reported “the Trump administration is preparing sweeping changes at the Internal Revenue Service that would allow the agency to pursue criminal inquiries of some groups more easily.” So are they in error and no such sweeping changes or any changes are being prepared there to use the IRS?

Bisignano: I hope that you understand that every form of the daily news is not a Bible.

Doggett: That's why I'm asking.

Bisignano: Not a Bible, sir.

Doggett Yeah, that's absolutely right. And I'm asking you about this.

Bisignano: I've actually never heard that or seen.

Doggett: You've never heard that the Trump administration was trying to weaponize the IRS?

Bisignano: 100% not. 

Doggett: Then you're not familiar with President Trump's tweet specifically attacking Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, asking that it's tax-exempt status should be re-evaluated? You didn't . . . you're not aware of that?

Bisignano: I don't track tweets sir.

Doggett: You don't track Truth Social. It doesn't have anything to do with your work? 

Bisignano: You will not find my social media presence anywhere.

Doggett: Well, this is the President of course not very interested in ethics so I was very concerned about that. 

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