Patman Committee
The Patman Committee was a select committee which investigated tax-exempt foundations largely in the 1960s. Known as the Select Committee on Small Business and chaired by Texas liberal Democrat Wright Patman from 1955 to 1963,[1] it sought to determine whether large foundations used their privileges for the purpose of evading taxes.
Background
The Select Committee to Investigate Tax-Exempt Foundations and Comparable Organizations during the 82nd Congress, known as the Cox Committee, investigated tax-exempt foundations for subversion though did not conduct a thorough investigation. Although its final report exonerated major foundations of wrongdoing,[2] it also recommended a new investigation to probe whether foundations exploited their tax-exempt status.[3]
B. Carroll Reece, a Tennessee conservative Republican who was part of the Cox Committee, successfully sought a do-over to thoroughly investigate subversion charges (the re-enacted select committee in the following 83rd Congress was known as the Reece Committee) though did not focus on the potential tax-exempt exploitation aspect.[3]
References
- â Grant, Jr., Philip A. (September 1, 1995). Patman, John William Wright (1893â1976). Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved September 24, 2021.
- â FascinatingPolitics (December 22, 2019). The Reece Committee on Foundations: Conspiratorial Nonsense or an Expose of a Threat to the Nation?. Mad Politics: The Bizarre, Fascinating, and Unknown of American Political History. Retrieved September 24, 2021.
- â 3.0 3.1 Samson, Steven Alan. Charity For All: B. Carroll Reece and the Tax-Exempt Foundations. Liberty University. Retrieved September 24, 2021.