Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) urged the Trump administration Thursday to investigate reports that a clique of ideologically driven staffers at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene had launched an anti-Israel “working group” inside the agency.

In a letter addressed to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the upstate lawmaker decried reports that employees had met during work hours at the city bureaucracy’s Queens headquarters. 

Stefanik raised the possibility the department’s federal funding might have gone toward a prohibited political purpose — or that the gathering may have violated civil rights protections by creating a discriminatory environment for Jewish New Yorkers.

“The use of federal funds to support or tolerate government-sponsored activities that veer into ideological advocacy or that risk emboldening hate is a grave matter with civil rights and public safety implications,” Stefanik wrote. 

The letter requested Kennedy’s agency probe four questions: whether any federal resources went toward enabling the working group, whether it created a hostile context for Jewish employees and service recipients, whether higher-ups in the agency were aware or approved of its establishment and activities and whether HHS action against the agency is appropriate. Stefanik further asked for a briefing within 30 days on the federal department’s findings.

Neither HHS nor the Mamdani administration immediately replied to requests for comment.