SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Religious Freedom 
Peace Tax Fund Act of 2009’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The free exercise of religion is an inalien-
able right, protected by the First Amendment of the 
United States Constitution. 
(2) Congress reaffirmed this right in the Reli-
gious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, as amended 
in 1998, which prohibits the Federal Government 
from imposing a substantial burden on the free exer-
cise of religion unless it demonstrates that a compel-
ling government interest is achieved by the least re-
strictive means. 
(3) Many people immigrated to America (in-
cluding members of the Quaker, Mennonite, and 
Church of the Brethren faiths) to escape persecution 
for their refusal to participate in warfare, yet during 
the First World War hundreds of conscientious ob-
jectors were imprisoned in America for their beliefs. 
Some died while incarcerated as a result of mistreat-
ment. 
(4) During the Second World War, ‘‘alternative 
civilian service’’ was established in lieu of military 
service, by the Selective Training and Service Act of 
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1940, to accommodate a wide spectrum of religious 
beliefs and practices. Subsequent case law also has 
expanded these exemptions, and has described this 
policy as one of ‘‘. . . long standing tradition in this 
country . . .’’ affording ‘‘the important value of rec-
onciling individuality of belief with practical exigen-
cies whenever possible. It dates back to colonial 
times and has been perpetuated in state and federal 
conscription statutes,’’ and ‘‘has roots deeply embed-
ded in history.’’ (Welsh v. United States, 1970, Jus-
tice Harlan concurring). During and since the Sec-
ond World War thousands of conscientious objectors 
provided essential staff for mental hospitals and vol-
unteered as human test subjects for arduous medical 
experiments, and provided other service for the na-
tional health, safety and interest. 
(5) Conscientious objectors have sought alter-
native service for their tax payments since that time. 
They request legal relief from government seizure of 
their homes, livestock, automobiles, and other prop-
erty; and from having bank accounts attached, 
wages garnished, fines imposed, and imprisonment 
threatened, to compel them to violate their personal 
and religious convictions. 
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(6) Conscientious objection to participation in 
war in any form based upon moral, ethical, or reli-
gious beliefs is recognized in Federal law, with provi-
sion for alternative service; but no such provision ex-
ists for taxpayers who are conscientious objectors 
and who are compelled to participate in war through 
the payment of taxes to support military activities. 
(7) The Joint Committee on Taxation has cer-
tified that a tax trust fund, providing for conscien-
tious objector taxpayers to pay their full taxes for 
non-military purposes, would increase Federal reve-
nues. 
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 
(a) DESIGNATED CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR.—For 
purposes of this Act, the term ‘‘designated conscientious 
objector’’ means a taxpayer who is opposed to participa-
tion in war in any form based upon the taxpayer’s sin-
cerely held moral, ethical, or religious beliefs or training 
(within the meaning of the Military Selective Service Act 
(50 U.S.C. App. 456(j))), and who has certified these be-
liefs in writing to the Secretary of the Treasury in such 
form and manner as the Secretary provides. 
(b) MILITARY PURPOSE.—For purposes of this Act, 
the term ‘‘military purpose’’ means any activity or pro-
gram which any agency of the Government conducts, ad-
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ministers, or sponsors and which effects an augmentation 
of military forces or of defensive and offensive intelligence 
activities, or enhances the capability of any person or na-
tion to wage war, including the appropriation of funds by 
the United States for— 
(1) the Department of Defense; 
(2) the intelligence community (as defined in 
section 3(4) of the National Security Act of 1947 
(50 U.S.C. 104a(4))); 
(3) the Selective Service System; 
(4) activities of the Department of Energy that 
have a military purpose; 
(5) activities of the National Aeronautics and 
Space Administration that have a military purpose; 
(6) foreign military aid; and 
(7) the training, supplying, or maintaining of 
military personnel, or the manufacture, construction, 
maintenance, or development of military weapons, 
installations, or strategies. 
SEC. 4. RELIGIOUS FREEDOM PEACE TAX FUND. 
(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary of the Treas-
ury shall establish an account in the Treasury of the 
United States to be known as the ‘‘Religious Freedom 
Peace Tax Fund’’, for the deposit of income, gift, and es-
tate taxes paid by or on behalf of taxpayers who are des-
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ignated conscientious objectors. The method of deposit 
shall be prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury in 
a manner that minimizes the cost to the Treasury and 
does not impose an undue burden on such taxpayers. 
(b) USE
OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM PEACE TAX 
FUND.—Monies deposited in the Religious Freedom Peace 
Tax Fund shall be allocated annually to any appropriation 
not for a military purpose. 
(c) REPORT.—The Secretary of the Treasury shall re-
port to the Committees on Appropriations of the House 
of Representatives and the Senate each year on the total 
amount transferred into the Religious Freedom Peace Tax 
Fund during the preceding fiscal year and the purposes 
for which such amount was allocated in such preceding 
fiscal year. Such report shall be printed in the Congres-
sional Record upon receipt by the Committees. The pri-
vacy of individuals using the Fund shall be protected. 
(d) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-
gress that any increase in revenue to the Treasury result-
ing from the creation of the Religious Freedom Peace Tax 
Fund shall be allocated in a manner consistent with the 
purposes of the Fund. 
Æ 
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