Senate Republicans blast Biden administration for wiring tax dollars to terrorism-tied group

Republican senators are slamming the Biden administration for awarding cash to a terrorism-linked organization even after it began to be investigated by a government watchdog.

The Washington Examiner first reported Wednesday that the U.S. Agency for International Development gave $78,000 in October 2023 to Helping Hand for Relief and Development, which lawmakers have warned shares ties to terrorists, despite USAID’s inspector general launching an investigation into the agency for granting $110,000 in 2021 to the Michigan-based charity. Helping Hand for Relief and Development has ties to Pakistan’s Falah-e-Insaniat, an arm of the Lashkar-e-Taiba foreign terrorist group, and also Jamaat-e-Islami, an international Islamist group responsible for genocide.

“American taxpayer dollars should never be funneled into the pockets of terrorists,” Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) told the Washington Examiner. “There needs to be an immediate inquiry to find out why the administration continued to provide more taxpayer dollars to a group reportedly associating with terrorists.”

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) called it “unbelievable” that the Biden administration “would double down on taxpayer-funded terrorism.”

“Handing over more than $100,000 in taxpayer dollars to a terrorist-linked organization while it was under investigation is fundamentally un-American,” Ernst said. “It’s past time to clean up at USAID for their taxpayer waste. Not another cent to terrorist sympathizers.”