I cosponsored the Free Speech Fairness Act (H.R.949) to provide protections for tax-exempt organizations exercising free speech in the electoral process.
Support legal protections for tax-exempt organizations engaging in electoral speech.
Occurrences
Evidence
The official House homepage's latest-news section, as crawled in June 2026, lists June 9 and June 4 items on ICE/CBP funding and tax-hearing remarks, and it does not show any Johnson Amendment or nonprofit-electoral-speech action in the current lookback window.
Assessments
The underlying federal restriction was not repealed or broadly replaced during Hern's time in office, and there is no clear evidence here that he sponsored, wrote, or materially advanced a successful change delivering legal protection for tax-exempt organizations to engage in electoral speech. A later IRS-era carve-out for houses of worship was narrower than the claim, did not extend generally to tax-exempt organizations, and is not clearly attributable to Hern. On this record, the promise was not delivered.