Trump Set To Relax Rules On Political Activity By Religious Groups

[rug]

May 3, 20179:34 PM ET
JESSICA TAYLOR

President Trump is set to sign an executive order on Thursday that aims to relax restrictions on political activity by religious groups without threatening their tax-exempt status.

According to a senior White House official, the order will reiterate the White House's commitment to religious liberty; will direct the IRS to use "maximum enforcement discretion" to ease the burdens of the Johnson Amendment, which regulates political activity of non-profits such as churches; and will call for "regulatory relief" from the Affordable Care Act mandate that employer-provided health care plans provide free birth control and other reproductive health services.

Trump will sign the executive order Thursday morning on the National Day of Prayer. The White House has not yet released the full text of the executive order.

The directives are among the promises Trump made on the campaign trail that would blur government lines dividing church and state. In meetings with religious leaders last year, Trump pledged to "get rid" of IRS rules that prohibited tax-exempt groups like churches from engaging in political advocacy, NPR's Sarah McCammon reported. However, such rules, established by the 1954 Johnson Amendment, are rarely enforced.

http://www.npr.org/2017/05/03/526796008/trump-set-to-relax-rules-on-political-activity-by-religious-groups

[Gothmog]

1. Pence tried some of this and it backfired on him

[rug]

2. The trump administration will be known as the place rightwing ideas came to die.

[AtheistCrusader]

3. Not until after they are birthed, and we will have to live with the fallout.

[rug]

4. Most of them arrive stillborn and rotting.