McCaul Threatens to Subpoena the State Department For Failure to Produce Correspondence on Atheism Grants
Washington, D.C. – This week, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul sent a letter to Deputy Secretary of State Richard Verma on the State Department’s failure to produce all documents regarding its grants promoting atheism overseas. In his letter, Chairman McCaul noted he will be forced to issue a subpoena on this matter if all requested documents are not produced by August 6, 2024.
“The Department’s continued non-production of the requested correspondence – including emails and text messages which are known to exist – is an unacceptable continuation of this pattern…” wrote Chairman McCaul. “The Committee thus expects all correspondence between the Department and [Humanist International] to be produced no later than August 6, 2024. Further delay in producing these emails will force me to issue a subpoena.”
The full text of the letter can be found here and below.
Dear Deputy Secretary Verma,
I appreciate the Department’s letter in which it admitted that the Department had failed to produce all documents regarding its grants promoting atheism overseas and misrepresented to this Committee the nature of that programming. I also appreciate your expressing “enormous respect for the congressional role . . . in oversight of the Department.” Unfortunately, I must write again to inform you that the Department has failed to produce, as requested nearly a year ago, all correspondence between the Department and Humanists International (HI).