DFW Airport drops ablution station plan as Texas governor orders grant review

State pressure from Texas Governor Greg Abbott has pushed Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport to abandon a plan for Islamic ablution washing stations in Terminal D, with Abbott directing a review of state grants to entities operating both DFW and Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport for possible revocation. He simultaneously referred both airports to the U.S. Department of Transportation for investigation, calling the proposed installations unconstitutional.

The filing and the numbers

The project had been registered with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation on July 31. That initial filing put the cost at $300,000 and listed the funding source as private. DFW later attributed both details to administrative errors by its outside design firm. The airport said a more realistic cost estimate, had the project received final approval, would have been closer to $120,000, funded by airport revenue from parking and concessions rather than taxpayer appropriations.

DFW said it had been evaluating the proposal for the pre-security side of Terminal D, its international terminal, and accelerated that review after the plan attracted elevated public attention. The airport determined the project would not deliver the originally anticipated operational benefits.

Abbott wrote on X that government-owned airports cannot favor one religion over all others and described the wudu washing facilities as illegal under state and federal law. In a letter to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, he asked the Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration to review religious facilities and accommodations at both airports. Abbott argued the facilities appear designed to single out one subset of the population based on religion, which he said conflicts with federal and state constitutional prohibitions. Government, he wrote, cannot favor one religious view over all others any more than it can favor the secular over the sacred. His office noted that state grant recipients must certify compliance with anti-discrimination law, the legal basis for the potential revocations.

Abbott's office said George Bush Intercontinental already operates an ablution station alongside a prayer room. Similar facilities exist at other major U.S. airports, including Chicago O'Hare.

What to watch

The definitive next steps are the USDOT and FAA responses to Abbott's referral and whether the state grant review produces a formal revocation at either airport. Houston Airports had not responded to the inquiry as of publication.