As Hamas continues to foment terror against Israel, including the brutal slaughter last week of six hostages, the Biden-Harris administration is facing pressure to expedite the release of a congressionally mandated report detailing the terror group's financial channels.
Rep. Bryan Steil (R., Wis.), a member of the House Financial Services Committee, is pressing the Treasury Department to release a much-anticipated report on Hamas's financial channels and U.S. efforts to disrupt these networks.
The report is meant to help legislators identify Hamas's major funding channels, including those tracing back to Iran, so that they can sculpt sanctions and other measures that disrupt the terror group's financial lifelines. While the administration has until October 21 to furnish the report, Steil says it should come sooner as a result of Hamas's ongoing terror campaign.
"This report is a critical first step to denying Hamas the funds it will continue to spend on terrorism," Steil wrote Thursday to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, according to a copy of the letter obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. "Recent events underscore the urgency of identifying the sources of financing to Hamas and taking clear and decisive steps to disrupt their illicit financial flows and their ability to finance armed hostilities."
Hamas is estimated to spend anywhere from $100 million to $350 million annually on its military budget, and the terror group's top leaders are worth billions, running the militant group's operations from luxury hotels in Qatar. The organization is funded, armed, and directed by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which provides the logistics and cash needed to fuel war against Israel.
While the Biden-Harris administration has issued several tranches of fresh sanctions on Hamas in the wake of the group's Oct. 7 terror spree on Israel, Hamas is believed to have raised an additional $500 million in recent months by stealing humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip and reselling it on the black market.
As the terror group continues to prove that it can pay for terrorism, Steil and other lawmakers are eagerly awaiting the Treasury Department's report so that they can begin working to disrupt the cash flow.
"Recently, Hamas viciously murdered Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an American citizen, and five other hostages, as Israeli forces closed in on their location," the lawmaker wrote. "This recent act of violence has made it abundantly clear that we need to do more to put pressure on Hamas and its sponsors to get hostages home and put an end to these atrocities."
Hamas and other terrorist groups in the region, Steil added, "must understand that they cannot murder Americans and other innocent civilians with impunity. It is critical that we use every single tool at our disposal to hold Hamas accountable for their barbaric acts and force them to release the rest of the hostages and put an end to this perpetual terrorist threat."
The reporting mechanism was triggered by an April piece of legislation sponsored by Steil, the End Financing for Hamas and State Sponsors of Terrorism Act.
The measure instructed the Treasury Department to work with European allies to identify and disrupt Hamas's global financial channels, which even stretch into Latin America. Hamas raises money by selling drugs, smuggling weapons, and working with criminal cartels in the Southern Hemisphere, among other activities.
As part of the legislation, the administration was also ordered to assemble a report detailing "major financing sources to Hamas, a description of U.S. multilateral efforts to disrupt illicit financial flows to the group, and an evaluation of efforts to undermine Hamas's ability to finance armed hostilities against Israel."