GOP Senators Push Trump To Remove UNRWA From UN Budget

Sen. Tom Cotton and 24 Republican senators are urging President Donald Trump to fully dismantle UNRWA and remove the Palestinian aid agency from the United Nations budget, arguing that American taxpayer money is still reaching the agency indirectly.

The push comes after Trump signed an executive order in February 2025 ending direct U.S. funding to UNRWA. Republicans now say that step did not go far enough because UNRWA still receives funding through the UN regular budget, which is partly funded by the United States.

“Any aid organization in Gaza or otherwise must be demonstrably free of ties to terrorism and committed to transparency, accountability, and peace,” the senators wrote in a letter sent Monday.

Cotton and the other Republican senators said UNRWA remains part of a failed system that helped create the conditions in which Hamas grew its power in Gaza. They urged Trump to use U.S. influence at the UN to remove the agency from the international body’s budget entirely.

“We must ensure the failed system doesn’t continue reinforcing the conditions that have fueled terrorism for generations. The time to act is now,” they wrote.

According to the senators, UNRWA receives roughly $70 million a year from the UN regular budget. Since the United States funds about a quarter of that budget, they argue that U.S. taxpayers are still indirectly supporting the agency despite Trump’s direct funding ban.

The letter also cites recent findings from the USAID Office of Inspector General, which has been investigating allegations that UNRWA employees participated in the Hamas-led massacre in Israel on October 7, 2023, or were otherwise affiliated with the terrorist organization.

USAID OIG has referred 21 current or former UNRWA-linked individuals for possible suspension or debarment from receiving U.S. taxpayer money. The cases include seven people accused of involvement in October 7 activity and 14 others accused of Hamas affiliation.

In one case, former UNRWA school principal Hafez Mousa Mohammed Mousa received a 10-year U.S. government-wide debarment after investigators said he was a Hamas East Jabaliya Battalion operative who helped coordinate communications during the October 7 attack.

The senators also accused UNRWA facilities of being used to store weapons and hide Hamas tunnel infrastructure, claims Israel has repeatedly raised during the war in Gaza.

The latest letter marks an escalation from previous Republican pressure on the administration to keep UNRWA out of Gaza reconstruction plans. The new demand goes further, calling for the agency to be removed from the UN budget structure altogether.

Congressional appropriators are separately proposing broader UN funding cuts, including restrictions on money going to organizations that do not cooperate with federal watchdog investigations.