WASHINGTON D.C.—October 20, 2026—Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) and eight House Republicans called on Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to expand his department’s investigation of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) to other terror-linked grant recipients. The representatives’ October 13 letter is based on the Middle East Forum’s (MEF) July 2026 landmark report, “Health and Human Services Hidden Handouts,” which identified almost $80 million in grants to extremist groups.
The lawmakers warn that “HHS funding of terrorist-linked organizations was much more widespread than previously understood.”
The report, by MEF Action director Benjamin Baird, documented $79 million in HHS-originated grants to 14 Islamist organizations, 87 percent of it approved under the Biden-Harris administration. Over $50 million went to radical groups to administer refugee services to mostly Afghan and Iraqi immigrants, with more than 80 percent of these funds allocated to CAIR, a designated terrorist group in at least two states.
The letter’s first request is that HHS “immediately suspend any awards from the Middle East Forum’s report that are assessed to have an active performance period.” The lawmakers warn that “HHS funding of terrorist-linked organizations was much more widespread than previously understood.”
Dar Al-Hijrah, a Northern Virginia mosque that hosted two 9/11 hijackers, received nearly $340,000 to promote coronavirus vaccines—even after the mosque promoted coronavirus conspiracies during an online workshop. The Sacramento chapter of the Muslim American Society (MAS), which a federal appeals court called “the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America,” was paid to teach reproductive health to Afghan and Arab women, despite the Muslim Brotherhood’s history of promoting Female Genital Mutilation. Another $14 million went to five foreign groups, among them India’s Aligarh Muslim University, where authorities have broken up multiple ISIS cells in recent years, and a Ramallah polling firm founded by Khalil Shikaki, a former close associate of convicted Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Sami Al-Arian.
Roy’s letter is just the latest action from public officials in response to an MEF campaign urging federal agencies to aggressively pursue debarment investigations of grant recipients with terrorist connections. Federal regulations allow agencies to impose government-wide funding prohibitions against entities for serious and compelling causes. After MEF briefed HHS officials and Congress, Roy and 13 fellow House Republicans first wrote to Kennedy on April 27, calling for CAIR’s debarment over its “longstanding ties to terrorist organizations” and alleged misuse of HHS refugee funds.
Federal regulations allow agencies to impose government-wide funding prohibitions against entities for serious and compelling causes.
HHS answered on June 9, when Kennedy announced a review of CAIR and its California and Washington affiliates, promising that “if there is evidence of fraud, abuse, or ties to designated terrorist organizations, we will act.” That same day, Assistant Secretary Gustav Chiarello told California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) that Roy and his colleagues “have informed HHS that there may be connections between CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood and its Palestinian branch, Hamas.”
Published on July 22, MEF’s reportshowed that the problem extends well beyond CAIR, tracing taxpayer dollars to groups tied to Hamas, Hezbollah, Jamaat-e-Islami, and ISIS. The study also demonstrated how 70 percent of HHS’s grants to problematic groups were sub-granted from pass-through agencies. Roy’s latest letter thanks Kennedy for acting on the April request, then asks HHS to conduct department-wide debarment reviews and to vet sub-recipients as rigorously as prime recipients.
HHS is not alone. In February 2025, MEF exposed $164 million in U.S. Agency for International Development grants to Islamist groups, findings that drove congressional hearings and a $9 billion foreign-aid rescissions package. MEF’s July 2025 report, “Homeland Insecurity,” uncovered more than $25 million in Department of Homeland Security (DHS) grants to radical nonprofits. In response, DHS terminated $8 million across 49 projects, saying it took “the results of the MEF report very seriously.”
“Biden-era officials handed refugee money and foreign aid to Islamists with terror ties, and the Trump administration now has the evidence it needs to suspend those awards, debar the recipients, and close the loopholes that let them in.”
“When Congress first asked HHS to examine CAIR, Secretary Kennedy acted, and now members are asking him to apply the same scrutiny to every terror-linked group in our report, from the mosque where Fort Hood mass shooter Nidal Hasan worshipped to the university that harbored ISIS cells,” said Baird. “Suspension and debarment give HHS the tools to ensure these groups never receive another taxpayer dollar.”
“CAIR was the first name on the list, and this letter proves it will not be the last,” said Gregg Roman, MEF’s executive director. “Biden-era officials handed refugee money and foreign aid to Islamists with terror ties, and the Trump administration now has the evidence it needs to suspend those awards, debar the recipients, and close the loopholes that let them in.”
About the Middle East Forum
The Middle East Forum, a nonprofit research center, promotes American interests in the Middle East and protects Western civilization from Islamism. It does so through its publications, research, policy initiatives, and public education programs.
For more information, contact:
Gregg Roman
Roman@MEForum.org
+1 (215) 546-5406
@greggroman (X)
