As we enter the last summer before Sen. Ben Cardin retires from many years of distinguished service in Maryland, I am awash with memories of my short stint working for him in the House of Representatives. I was lucky to have the opportunity to closely observe a political anomaly — that rare political leader who doesn’t shed integrity the higher he climbs. Cardin is a constituent-centered civil servant who maintained his highly ethical demeanor throughout his tenure in a political arena that saw an increase in its vulgar and boorish ambiance. His retirement is a tremendous loss to Maryland.

It was later in the summer, on a hot August day in 1990, when America awoke to headlines that Iraq had invaded Kuwait, a country few could locate on a world map. As I recall the discussions that morning in Cardin’s Washington office about what the invasion meant for the United States, it raises concerning thoughts about a significantly more serious threat today, by another Middle Eastern country most Americans could not locate on a map: Yemen.

The Houthis, this year deemed by the U.S. a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist,” have been waging a civil war in Yemen since 2014. But as early as 2003, they officially declared the United States its enemy. They have amassed a powerful war chest of weapons, intelligence, military training and technology supplied by Iran and Hezbollah. In addition to taking over large parts of Yemen territory, Houthi terrorists have usurped control over government agencies, schools, and infrastructure, including key ports.

Americans may feel far from Yemen, but they are impacted by the Houthi terrorist activities beyond the Houthi missiles and kamikaze drones that threaten U.S. lives and ships. The interference with commercial trade in the Red Sea has a trickle-down effect that could drive up the costs of goods on Maryland households. Moreover, your tax dollars may be directly paying for the Houthi activities that harm you at the front and back ends of their terrorism.

U.S. government agencies, through grants to non-government organizations (NGOs), have already given Yemen $5.4 billion for humanitarian aid. With no end to the war in sight, this figure is expected to increase aggressively; currently, over 2 million children in Yemen are under threat of starvation and 21.6 million men, women, and children are in dire need of food and other humanitarian aid.

The U.N. acknowledges that the Houthis block incoming humanitarian assistance to civilians, enabling diversion of aid to the terrorists’ use. In Houthi-controlled areas, human rights NGOs may even rely, from the get-go, on Houthi terrorists to distribute aid. Under the guise of “humanitarian aid,” America allows funding to be used for political advocacy, education, cash distributions, and food or medicine. Unchecked, this enables U.S. tax dollars to indoctrinate kids in Houthi-controlled schools and fund pro-Houthi political rallies. The Houthis can also use food packages to coerce hungry children to “voluntarily” join the Houthi military or redirect cash assistance intended for poor Yemen families toward corrupt Houthi military leaders for use at their discretion.

The U.S. government is paying the fox to guard the hen house. There is inadequate scrutiny and vetting of recipient NGOs and insufficient accountability and transparency for funds provided to NGOs for Yemen humanitarian aid. The Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), a self-defined humanitarian NGO that has been receiving U.S. government funds for decades, is one example of why this is so urgently needed. Despite settling a civil fraud suit with the U.S. government after it provided material support to Iran and Hamas, NPA has received more than $1 million in new grants from the U.S. government for activities in Yemen. How much of this sum will be diverted to terror is entirely unknown.

What happens in Yemen does not stay in Yemen. Rather, it adversely affects local Maryland families and their bank accounts. In May 2024, the U.S. government announced another $200 million for humanitarian aid in Yemen, without conditions to ensure funds won’t be diverted to the Houthis and used to harm American civilians or U.S. interests. While Maryland counties lack education funds for local schools, its residents may instead be financing teaching “Death to America” in Houthi schools. While Marylanders are facing higher grocery bills than ever before and, last year, more than a third of Maryland parents were challenged in affording food for their children, our tax dollars may be funding anti-America rallies in Yemen organized by fat-cat terrorists.

Fifty percent of Maryland’s Senatorial and Congressional Delegations sit on their respective appropriations committees, giving our politicians tremendous influence in determining how tax dollars are spent. Marylanders deserve to know that there is accountability and transparency in NGO funding to Yemen.

Chevy Weiss (chevy.maryland@gmail.com) worked on both sides of Maryland’s political aisle for more than 30 years.