Oversight Committee to Inquire into Funding of UNRWA by Biden Administration

Republicans on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, led by Chairman James Comer, Friday said they are investigating President Joe Biden and his administration’s funding of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), questioning a decision from April 2021 to reinstate financing the assistance organization.

The probe is underway “in light of recent reporting revealing some UNRWA staff members actively participated in the October 7, 2023, terrorist attacks and kidnappings against Israel,” committee Republicans said in a press release Friday, reports The Hill.

The White House announced last month that it would halt funds for the UNRWA after the allegations surfaced that about a dozen staffers were involved in the Hamas attacks.

The Trump administration stopped funding for the UNRWA in 2018. At the time, a State Department spokesman said in a statement that the funding had been “carefully reviewed” and that the United States would not make additional contributions to UNRWA because its practices and business model were “unsustainable.”

Biden, following up with promises made as a presidential candidate to restore assistance to the Palestinians, announced $235 million in funding for UNRWA in April 2021.

The Oversight Republicans, in a letter Friday to Secretary Antony Blinken, demanded that “all documents and communications between or among any State Department official and the White House relating to the decision, announced April 7, 2021, to resume funding to UNRWA” be turned over by no later than March 1.

“The latest revelations of UNRWA’s ties to terror groups warrant greater scrutiny of the Biden Administration’s decision in April 2021 to partner with the agency,” the letter said. “Therefore, the Committee seeks documents and information regarding the Biden Administration’s decision to renew funding for UNRWA in 2021.”