In a 12-10 party line vote, Republicans cleared legislation to defund non-governmental organizations in Afghanistan that have allegedly been hijacked by the Taliban from the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Will it head to the Senate floor for a vote?
The legislation, originally introduced by Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn. in the House, was crafted in response to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction’s report in 2021 that the Taliban stole around 70% of the over $10.72 billion administered to NGOs in Afghanistan in 2021 alone.
“Putting money in the hands of the Taliban is a slap in the face to every service person who served in Afghanistan,” Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Chairman Jim Risch, R-Ida., said in a statement. “It is the wrong thing to do. It is just common sense to keep our taxpayer money out of the hands of terrorist organizations.”
Democrats, however, opposed advancing the legislation out of committee.
If passed, the No Tax Dollars for Terrorist Act would defund organizations such as the Afghan Fund and require the State Department to identify and oppose nations that continue to allocate financial resources to them.
The legislation passed the U.S. House of Representatives in July of 2025, before being introduced in the Senate by Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., last summer.
In 2022, the Heritage Foundation stated that the foreign-aid establishment of government bureaucrats, United Nations experts, contractors, and aid agencies has “utterly failed” to “help Afghans gain any semblance of self-sufficiency,” which has left behind a “failed state and Asia’s poorest country,” as a result.
“Hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer funds were wasted, leaving the Afghan people to scavenge for food to survive while the Taliban reestablishes the country as a global terrorist hub,” Heritage researchers added.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has not indicated when he will bring the legislation to a floor vote.
However, Burchett and other conservative voices have urged the public to apply public pressure to force a vote on the legislation.
“Call your Senator, thank him for the support, and encourage him to get it to the floor,” Burchett said on X. “Not one more week delay. Let’s put this bad chapter of our fiscal mismanagement to rest.”
Burchett did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment.
