PRESS RELEASE: Investigate the Funding Behind The Proposed Mosque

Republican/Conservative House candidate Michael Grimm is calling on Congress to immediately return to session and investigate the funding behind the proposed mosque near Ground Zero.

"Congress should hold investigative hearings into the radical sponsors and secret funding of this mosque" said Grimm, a decorated Marine, former FBI agent and 9/11 first responder. "Shining the national spotlight into this shadowy operation will be a major step forward in blocking this construction and could help find new, creative ways to do just that."

Grimm also wants Congress to declare the area around the 9/11 site a national memorial similar to an historic battlefield like Manassas or Gettysburg. That government declaration status was used to block construction adjacent to any site and could be a way to block this project.

"9/11 was an attack on our entire Nation and our national legislature has to respond to the desecration of this national memorial site," Grimm said. "And there are concrete steps Congress can and must take now. The silence of Nancy Pelosi and Michael McMahon on the mosque at Ground Zero is an outrage."

"Additionally, the Appropriation Committees can use their considerable powers to compel action to block the mosque. When Congress wants to get something done, there's no faster or more effective route than the Appropriations process."

Grimm says there are dozens of other creative ways that Congress can stop this project.

"When Congress wants to tax us or waste our hard earned dollars they meet non-stop, night and day. For Pelosi and McMahon to remain on a month long vacation while American anger on this reaches the boiling point is the height of arrogance."