According to exclusive information obtained by Breitbart News, the major U.S. House committee with responsibility for tax law and supervision has launched a formal investigation into the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its affiliate foundation.
House Ways and Means Committee chair Rep. Jason Smith ( R- MO ) on Monday night demanded responses from the president and CEO of the U. S. Chamber of Commerce and from the leader of the associated U. S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation to in- level queries about donations the Chamber’s base received from the Tides Foundation based on an exclusive statement from Breitbart News earlier this year.
Smith, the letter’s author and president of the effective tax commission, told Breitbart News specifically that “tax-exempt organizations like the Chamber of Commerce have operated without adequate supervision for far too long.” The Chamber, which asserts to represent the interests of Main Street job creators, must explain why it has received millions of dollars in donations from a group whose stated goal is to undermine small American businesses. We have a duty to the American taxpayer to demand transparency and ensure tax- exempt organizations are operating in pursuit of the stated purpose for which they were organized under the tax code”.
U.S. Chamber of Commerce Letter v4 [2 ] by Breitbart News on Scribd on April 5, 2024
For what reason does it not seem like Smith is some radically right-wing Republican who the Chamber of Commerce despises or something? Just a few months ago, he negotiated a bipartisan tax reform deal with Senate Finance Chairman Sen. Ron Wyden ( D- OR ) that the Chamber of Commerce wholeheartedly publicly endorsed in a glowing January statement saying it “applauds” Smith and Wyden for their work.
The three-page letter from Smith to Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Suzanne Clark and Carolyn Cawley, the supposedly pro-business organization, gives the supposedly pro-business entities a two-week deadline of May 20, 2024 to respond to in-depth inquiries about the suspect donations.
Smith goes into great detail in his committee’s investigation of” the growth of the tax-exempt sector established under Section 501 ( c ) of the Internal Revenue Code” in the letter, which was also obtained exclusively by Breitbart News prior to its public release.
” Throughout the 118th Congress, the Committee on Ways and Means has been investigating the growth of the tax- exempt sector established under Section 501 ( c ) of the Internal Revenue Code”, Smith writes. The Committee held a hearing on the community benefit standard and tax-exempt hospitals in April 2023. The Committee requested information on tax-exempt organizations in an open letter released in August 2023, which addressed concerns about possible political interference, improper use of charitable funds, and concerns about concerns about foreign funding sources. In December 2023, the Committee’s Oversight Subcommittee held a hearing on the growth of the tax- exempt sector and its impact on the American political system”.
This is a very serious issue that, according to Smith in the next paragraph, could have significant effects on the Chamber of Commerce and its affiliated foundation as well as any members or donors to either institution because the Ways and Means Committee, of course, oversees tax law and the IRS.
These activities “acquired numerous concerns about activities of tax-exempt organizations like yours,” Smith writes, “and” helped inform the Committee about how the sector operated.” ” Specifically, we are concerned about recent public reporting regarding the U. S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation ( USCCF). The United States Chamber of Commerce ( USCCF ) is tax-exempt under section 501( c )( 3 ), and the USCC is not.
Next up is Smith, citing a late in March 2024 exclusive report from Breitbart News that reveals tax returns showing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation had received more than$ 12 million from a Tides Foundation over the course of several years. The Tides Foundation is funded in part by liberal billionaire George Soros.
The Tides Foundation, a left-leaning organization that collaborates with and supports groups that support policies that would harm the American business community, is reported in the public reports in the issue, with a footnote referencing the Breitbart News exclusive from late March.
In the following sentences of this paragraph, Smith points out that these donations raise serious questions about the affiliations between the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the United States Chamber of Commerce, and whether they are acting in a divisive way to support Soros and the Tides Foundation while remaining in compliance with their intended goals.
” Contrary to the USCC’s stated mission of improving lives’ by advancing American business ‘ and advocating’ for policies that help businesses create jobs and grow our economy,’ it seems odd that the foundation would accept funding from a group like the Tides Foundation, which is so focused on activities that seem counter to USCC’s mission”, Smith writes. These reports also raise questions about how the USCC and USCCF are utilizing their tax-exempt status.
In the next two paragraphs of the letter, Smith goes into great detail about how the Soros-funded Tides Foundation has a mission that contradicts the stated goals of the United States Chamber of Commerce and its affiliate foundation.
” According to the Tides Foundation’s website, they work with’ foundations who share our vision’ and help their foundation partners ‘]c ] ollaborate with like- minded funders to fuel social movements and transform policy,'” Smith writes. A just and equitable future can only be realized when communities that have historically been denied power have the social, political, and economic power they need, according to The Tides Foundation. The Tides Foundation collaborates with and supports a number of anti-business organizations that seem to directly disagree with the USCC’s stated goals. One example of an anti- business Tides Foundation supported project is the International Corporate Accountability Roundtable ( ICAR ). A report titled Building a Rights-Based Economy: A Corporate Accountability Agenda was released by the ICAR in December 2023. In this report, ICAR claimed that multinational corporations that have purposefully complex, opaque supply chains can conceal systematic wage theft, forced labor, and attacks against human rights activists, and that businesses that pay little to nothing in federal income taxes continue to spend hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying for their interests.
In the next couple paragraphs, Smith asks several questions and then specifically says that the Chamber and its foundation are under investigation for their tax- exempt status.
Does USCC share the Tides Foundation’s vision? If not, why would USCC accept donations from organizations who are so opposed to their goals? Or perhaps the better question is why would the Tides Foundation think that this donation would advance its interests”? Smith is a writer. Because the Committee is looking into whether tax-exempt organizations like USCC and USCCF are conducting business in ways that were previously unaffected by their reporting,” These reports are concerning.” Additionally, the Committee is concerned about whether donors to, and members of, organizations like yours have sufficient awareness of how their money is being spent”.
After that, Smith then specifies that Clark and Cawley have until May 20 to respond to the committee’s in-depth questions. In the following two weeks, Clark and Cawley are instructed to answer the following five questions:
- As a tax- exempt organization with the stated mission of advocating” for policies that help businesses create jobs and grow our economy” that has a related foundation, what exactly are taxpayers getting in return for the U. S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s tax- exempt status?
- Why does the Tides Foundation, a group that appears to sponsor and collaborate with openly anti-business groups, accept donations from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Foundation?
- What purposes did the Tides Foundation’s funds serve?
- Are your members and donors aware that the organization is funded, in part, by the Tides Foundation?
- Do you support the Tides Foundation’s goals? Why did you accept funding from the organization if not? Do you know why they donated to USCC?
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its affiliate foundation are unsure about their involvement in the investigation. Organizations that receive such document and question requests sometimes cooperate and provide answers within their deadlines, but occasionally not. If the entities do not end up cooperating, the Ways and Means Committee has the authority and power to then subpoena them and compel cooperation.
The significance of this moment, when a very serious Republican-led congressional committee is officially investigating the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, cannot be understated. According to numerous reports from Breitbart News, relations between the Chamber and congressional Republicans have been getting significantly worse in recent years. However, this is a whole new level of divisiveness. It’s worth noting that just a few years ago right before he became Speaker of the House now former House Speaker Paul Ryan was chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, the exact committee now investigating the Chamber of Commerce. This demonstrates a glaring departure from the globalist, international corporatist era of the past and a rarity for Ryan to ever do anything similar to what Smith does.
In recent years, Corporate America and Republicans have become increasingly disjointed, particularly with the emergence of former president Donald Trump in 2016. Trump, of course, is the presumptive GOP nominee for president again for the third straight presidential election—meaning he has been leading the party for about a decade now —and while he won in 2016 he did throughout his first term in office do some things with the business community, the two sides have definitely drifted further and further apart during that time and since Trump left office in early 2021. Jonathan Swan of the New York Times reported in a recent TikTok video for the Times that he anticipates that if Trump wins again in November, the Republican Party’s rift will grow even more, and this will only get worse.
In the video, Swan pointed out that a number of significant developments in recent years have exacerbated the division between Republicans and corporations, culminating with the “ultimate betrayal” of donations from corporations, according to Trump and his allies:
The New York Times just inadvertently released the greatest Trump ad of the year pic. https ://twitter.com/g7v1cyYc3a
— johnny maga ( @_johnnymaga ) April 29, 2024
Of course, at the forefront of this political shift from corporate America was the Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber of Commerce directly supported dozens of Democrats running for Congress in key swing districts, as Breitbart News reported back in September 2020. According to a man named Neil Bradley, this push, a major change from the Chamber’s routine activity, was led by him at the time. Bradley, a former staffer for former Sen. Tom Coburn ( R- OK ), by this time had come to the U. S. Chamber as an executive vice president and chief policy officer. According to later reports from Breitbart News, Republicans on Capitol Hill began calling Bradley” Kneel Bradley,” a play on the way his name was spelled, obviously in reference to sports stars who were kneeling during the national anthem as a demonstration against leftist pro-Democrat activism like Bradley was organizing at the Chamber.
For Clark, Cawley, the Chamber, and its affiliated foundation, this investigation’s launch is perhaps at a worst possible time. The news is breaking as the Chamber of Commerce is holding a major event in downtown Washington DC commencing Monday morning and continuing for the next three days. The Chamber’s 14th annual China Business Conference is one of the group’s aggressively publicized events on social media:
Last chance! RSVP to our China Business Conference next week, where we’ll bring together business leaders, public officials, and policy experts to explore the latest on economic and political developments and shape the bilateral &, global policy agendas. http ://t.co/FwG9E2mQe5 pic twitter.com/aCKyXw9Ohk
— U. S. Chamber ( @USChamber ) May 2, 2024
According to the website, speakers at the event include former CIA director Michael Morrell, former head of the Chamber of Commerce, and several leading Democrats from the party’s leadership, including many top Democrats from the current administration, as well as global leaders like Michael Froman, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, and Michele Flournoy, former head of WestExec, Michael Morrell, and many others. There will likely be awkward exchanges at the Chamber’s gathering between them and the globalists currently in charge of the Chamber as the formal Ways and Means Committee investigation into the Chamber’s tax status begins, because some Republicans, like Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI ), are also scheduled to speak at this event. Top business leaders set to speak there like Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger might even face questions about why they are associating with a group under investigation like this. Members of the Ways and Means Committee who pay taxes at the event may have inquiries about why the organization is currently being investigated by the committee.
