The House Financial Services Committee will examine U.S. efforts to disrupt funding to the Islamic State terrorist group at a hearing Thursday.
“The enormous wealth of the Islamic State, at least compared to other terrorist groups, compounds its brutality and enhances its capabilities to attack Americans and our interests,” committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) said.
“The Financial Services Committee will conduct rigorous oversight of the Obama administration’s efforts to disrupt the Islamic State’s financing network and examine the adequacy of international banking policies to combat the new challenges that the Islamic State and groups like it present,” he said.
Witnesses scheduled to appear at the hearing, titled “Terrorist Financing and The Islamic State,” include Treasury Undersecretary David S. Cohen, former Treasury Undersecretary for Enforcement Jimmy Gurule and Matthew Levitt of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
The Treasury Department estimates that the Islamic State has been earning $1 million per day from oil sales since June. It also receives funding from ransoms, criminal activities and donations.
Middle East leaders concur that cutting off funding to terrorist groups is essential. An Associated Press report said Bahrain Foreign Minister Sheik Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa told international delegates on Sunday that combating financing “is half the battle to defeating them.”