Legislation to defund nongovernmental organizations in Afghanistan that have allegedly been hijacked by the Taliban has cleared the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs and is headed to the chamber’s floor for a full vote, despite having been voted against by Democrats.
The legislation was introduced after the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction reported in 2021 that the Taliban stole around 70% of the over $10.72 billion administered to NGOs in Afghanistan in 2021—$3.83 billion of which stemmed directly from U.S. taxpayers.
“Putting money in the hands of the Taliban is a slap in the face to every service person who served in Afghanistan,” Committee Chairman Jim Risch, R-Idaho, 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.”
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.
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.
The legislation, originally introduced by Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., passed the U.S. House of Representatives in July 2025, before being introduced in the Senate by Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., last summer.
“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 Foundation 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, host of the “Shawn Ryan Show” and Navy SEAL Veteran Shawn Ryan, who teamed up with Burchett to draft the legislation, 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 and Ryan did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment.
