Four Texas congressmen are asking U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to investigate several Islamic groups for potential abuse of taxpayer-funded grants and ties to terrorism.
The Tuesday letter was signed by U.S. Reps. Chip Roy (R–Austin), Keith Self (R–McKinney), Randy Weber (R–Friendswood), and Michael Cloud (R–Victoria), along with five other members of Congress. It calls the examination of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) a “crucial step toward protecting taxpayers and the integrity of HHS programs.”
Roy and several other congressmen sent a letter earlier this year asking the HHS to investigate “CAIR’s grant compliance and terrorist affiliations.”
“However, new research suggests that HHS funding of terrorist-linked organizations was much more widespread than previously understood,” Tuesday’s letter reads.
The letter cited a recent audit conducted by the Middle East Forum (MEF), which found that “fourteen terror-linked and extremist organizations received nearly $80 million in HHS funding.” CAIR was listed as the top recipient of this funding in the MEF report. The group received over $42 million in grants for “Afghan resettlement,” according to the letter.
“During the Biden-Harris administration, HHS allocated over $50 million to CAIR and other Islamic organizations with suspected ties to radical groups to assist mostly Afghan immigrants with legal and social services, job placement, and medical care,” wrote the representatives. “Asking domestic extremist groups like CAIR to assist in the resettlement of Afghan parolees, many who hail from volatile regions and are highly vulnerable to radicalization, represents a security threat that policymakers and law enforcement are only beginning to understand.”
The representatives list “particularly egregious examples” of grants that have allegedly been distributed to terrorist-aligned groups.
They noted that Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center, a “Northern Virginia mosque where Al Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki preached … and two 9/11 hijackers received social and logistical support,” received more than $1 million in HHS funding. Anwar al-Awlaki notably engaged in email correspondence with Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan prior to his attack and Hisan had visited the Virginia mosque.
The representatives also highlighted that ICNA Relief is listed as having received nearly $11 million in HHS funding. ICNA Relief is associated with the Jamaat-e-Islami movement, a group “responsible for the genocide of secular intellectuals in Bangladesh’s 1971 war for independence.”
Additionally, the representatives noted that large amounts of HHS funds have been sent overseas to “hundreds of foreign assistance projects.” The Aligarh Muslim University in India is one of the recipients of HHS funds, despite the fact that multiple ISIS cells were recently discovered at the school.
“Many Biden-era grants do lasting harm to the communities they were assigned to help,” the representatives wrote.
The Muslim American Society (MAS) received $90,000 from HHS in 2024, with some grant money going to “promote reproductive health among Afghan and Arab women.” However, the letter noted that MAS’s former secretary general advocated for female genital mutilation.
Senegal’s Cheikh Anta Diop University was paid to “conduct a research study on gay Muslim men living with HIV,” while rogue student mobs were known to assault suspected homosexual classmates.
“The broader lesson is that the federal government often had access to information that should have triggered additional scrutiny before these awards were made,” the letter noted, laying out various steps the HHS could take to “ensure a future administration does not repeat these destructive policies.”
“Your decision to investigate CAIR demonstrates that HHS can act when credible evidence is brought forward,” the representatives wrote. “We respectfully urge you to build on that action by examining the broader network of radical grant recipients, integrating safeguards with HHS’s department-wide efforts to end waste, and abuse of taxpayer-funded programs well beyond the current administration’s term.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services told Texas Scorecard that “Americans deserve full transparency when taxpayer dollars are involved.”
“HHS will take appropriate action whenever there is evidence of fraud, abuse, or other violations of federal requirements,” the spokesperson said, noting that HHS requested a review of allegations involving CAIR and the use of federal grant funds in June 2026.
CAIR, MAS, and Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center have not responded to requests for comment on the letter.
