Kochs invoke free speech in backing IRS donor bill

Koch Industries is backing GOP legislation on the House floor this week to block the IRS from collecting information about donors to political nonprofits as part of their support for free speech and freedom of association, including anonymous advocacy, a representative for the business says.

Philip Ellender, president of government and public affairs for Koch Industries, told the Washington Examiner that the bill, authored by Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., “helps protect the American people, the right to freedom of association — protecting them from threats, from intimidation, from harassment because of their personal beliefs.”