Illinois Rep. Mary Miller has signed onto a letter led by Texas Rep. Chip Roy asking Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to expand a federal investigation into the Council on American-Islamic Relations and other Islamic organizations that together collected nearly $80 million in department grants.
“I joined @RepChipRoy in calling for an HHS investigation into CAIR and other Islamic organizations that reportedly received nearly $80 MILLION in federal grants under Joe Biden. This is insane and must be stopped,” Miller wrote on X.
The letter draws on an audit by the Middle East Forum, which reviewed federal grant data and public records and identified 14 organizations it labeled terror-linked or extremist. CAIR topped the list. According to the forum, the group drew more than $42 million from HHS, with $40,663,468 going to CAIR-California for Afghan refugee services. CAIR chapters in Washington state and Oklahoma received another $1.5 million through sub-grants.
The rest of the money went to a wider field of recipients. The audit counted nearly $11 million to ICNA Relief, roughly $1.2 million to the Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia, and $90,000 to MAS-Sacramento for its community center and social services foundation. Five organizations based overseas accounted for more than $14 million.
On paper, the forum reported, many of the awards carried routine labels: coronavirus relief, mosque renovations, job placement.
Roy and his co-signers told Kennedy the findings show HHS funding of these groups was “much more widespread than previously understood.” The lawmakers asked the department to suspend and debar recipients and to tighten vetting of grant applicants. Texas Reps. Keith Self, Randy Weber and Michael Cloud also signed the letter.
The request builds on an earlier one. Roy previously led a group of House members in urging Kennedy to suspend CAIR and begin formal debarment proceedings. That letter cited what the lawmakers described as the organization’s connections to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, along with allegations that its California chapter misused federal funds. HHS later opened a review of allegations involving CAIR National, CAIR-California and CAIR-Washington related to their use of federal grant money, according to department spokeswoman Emily Hilliard.
CAIR has rejected the forum’s research outright, calling the organization “a de facto agent of the Israeli government” and saying its claims have been discredited.
The lawmakers now want that review extended beyond CAIR to the other organizations named in the audit. A debarment ruling would bar any group it covers from receiving federal non-procurement awards across the government.
