{"id":410042,"date":"2026-08-18T18:50:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T18:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/410042\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T18:50:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T18:50:08","slug":"texas-news-gov-greg-abbott-threatens-dallas-houston-airports-grant-funds-over-islamic-washing-facilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/410042\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas news: Gov. Greg Abbott threatens Dallas, Houston airports\u2019 grant funds over Islamic washing facilities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dallas Fort Worth International Airport canceled plans to install a facility commonly used for Islamic prayer after Gov.\u00a0Greg Abbott<\/a>\u00a0on Friday threatened to withdraw state and federal funding, as Houston\u2019s mayor defended George Bush Intercontinental Airport\u2019s amenity.<\/p>\n

Abbott sent a\u00a0letter<\/a>\u00a0to the North Texas airport\u2019s CEO Christopher McLaughlin, as well as the mayors of Houston, Dallas and Fort Worth, stating his office was in the process of reviewing all grant funds over facilities in their cities\u2019 airports. He also sent a\u00a0letter<\/a>\u00a0to U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to refer the airports for federal investigations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese ablution facilities appear designed to single out one subset of the population for special treatment based on religion. That is illegal,\u201d Abbott said in a news release announcing the grant reviews. \u201cBoth airports are government-owned facilities. The federal and state constitutions prohibit government from facilitating this sort of discrimination. Just as the government cannot favor the secular over the sacred, it also cannot favor one religious view over all others.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the center of the investigation and grant reviews are ablution facilities, used by Muslim people for wudu, in which hands and feet are rinsed prior to prayer. Abbott said funding would be revoked if their use continued.<\/p>\n

Houston\u2019s airport has had an ablution room since\u00a02024<\/a>, described as for use by people of all faiths. DFW\u00a0told KERA<\/a>\u00a0that it has had a station since 2019.<\/p>\n

In a statement on Monday, Houston Mayor John Whitmire did not specify how the city or airport would respond to Abbott\u2019s letter, but defended the ablution facility in the airport as available to all. He also clarified that the facility was paid for through fees on international airlines, rather than taxes or grant funds of any kind.<\/p>\n

\u201cIAH is a global gateway, as it connects Houston to five continents via more than 200 nonstop routes,\u201d Whitmire said. \u201cThe ablution room was created in response to passenger requests and serves a practical need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shortly after Abbott\u2019s public announcement about the grant reviews on Friday, a DFW airport spokesperson said in a statement that plans for the facility had been canceled after deciding it \u201cwould not deliver the originally anticipated operational benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLike all proposed projects, the airport ultimately considers the operational benefits, customer service impacts, operational risks and costs before approving them,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n

Anti-Islamic<\/a>\u00a0rhetoric has been at the forefront of Texas Republican messaging through the year, as GOP leaders have railed for months about the urgency of ending the so-called \u201cIslamification\u201d of Texas.<\/p>\n

Abbott has\u00a0repeatedly used<\/a>\u00a0threats of withdrawing funding as a means of exerting control over Texas cities to press issues important to the GOP base in the state. Most recently, Abbott threatened $530,000 in grants for Grand Prairie unless the city canceled an event at a water park initially advertised as a \u201cMuslims only\u201d gathering. He also threatened funding for transportation last year unless cities removed\u00a0rainbow crosswalks<\/a>\u00a0intended to show support for LGBTQ+ communities.<\/p>\n

Abbott\u2019s letters about the ablution facilities follow another letter sent Thursday by Sen.\u00a0Tan Parker<\/a>, R-Flower Mound, to DFW airport officials. Parker, who chairs the state Senate\u2019s transportation committee, sent a\u00a0list of questions<\/a>\u00a0to administrators asking how the private donation for the facility was accepted and who it came from.<\/p>\n

In a statement Saturday morning, a spokesperson for the airport said the design firm filling out the permit form for the facility made an \u201cadministrative error\u201d and accidentally listed it as privately funded. The project was intended to be paid for by airport funds made through parking and concessions before it was canceled.<\/p>\n

The Texas Tribune<\/a>is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans \u2014 and engages with them \u2014 about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas Fort Worth International Airport canceled plans to install a facility commonly used for Islamic prayer after Gov.\u00a0Greg…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410043,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[143235,102,104,103],"class_list":["post-410042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-143235","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}