Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) discussed a Washington Examiner report on Hamas-owned cryptocurrency as part of a House floor speech this week calling for the Palestinian aid agency of the United Nations to be defunded over terrorism ties.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee member in a Wednesday speech excoriated the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which faces an uncertain future after Israel’s claim that its staff participated in the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack against Israelis prompted the United States and other countries to halt aid to it. Burchett introduced a resolution last week asking the Departments of State and Treasury to investigate “whether any cryptocurrencies were exchanged between Hamas and UNRWA” following a Washington Examiner report on Feb. 2 that revealed that an Israeli firm called Lionsgate Network is tracking cryptocurrency donations to UNRWA to uncover potential terrorism connections.

“Now, an Israeli firm is investigating the United Nations Relief and Works Agency’s digital wallets to see where the cryptocurrency is going,” Burchett said Wednesday. “This firm has found at least one digital wallet that belongs to Hamas still active. We need to defund the United Nations.”

“There have been rumors that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency had a relationship with Hamas,” Burchett also said in the speech. “Last week, these rumors were confirmed when we discovered that 12 members of the agency were directly involved in the horrific attacks on our friends in Israel on Oct. 7. Another 1,200 employees of the agency have direct connections to Hamas.”

“That’s 10% of all the agency’s employees in Gaza,” Burchett said.

For decades, concerns from lawmakers about terrorism ties have dogged UNRWA, which the Biden administration has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to after the Trump administration halted aid. The agency formed in 1949 “to carry out direct relief and works programs for Palestinian refugees,” but critics say UNRWA unjustly relieves Hamas, which controls Gaza, of responsibilities to provide basic services to civilians.

UNRWA accepts donations through a charity in the United States, which prompted Republican senators this week to urge the Justice Department to investigate whether the nonprofit group moves cash to terrorists, Fox News reported. The Washington Examiner reported in early February that Lionsgate Network has been in contact with the State Department on projects and previously recovered $90 million in Hamas-owned cryptocurrency in a partnership with Israel’s Ministry of Defense.

“The State Department did the right thing by pausing this funding to the agency, but it’s also something President Trump did years ago,” Burchett said in his speech. “The Biden administration restarted the funding in 2021. Clearly the administration did not do proper research to ensure this funding wasn’t going to friends of terrorists. Also, pausing the funding did not have the huge impact that they want us to think it did, since the United States has given them at least $730 million in taxpayer dollars since 2021.”

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“That’s about 99% of what’s been allocated and we only paused about $300,000 in the remaining funding,” Burchett said.

Lionsgate CEO Bezalel Raviv told the Washington Examiner this week that his firm found UNRWA “funnels” donations to an account through Gemini, a cryptocurrency exchange founded by investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.