Texas state Sen. Tan Parker is demanding answers from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport over a privately funded $300,000 project to install permanent Islamic ablution stations in Terminal D, arguing that modifications to a publicly owned airport should follow transparent and consistently applied rules.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Texas state Sen. Tan Parker is challenging plans to install two permanent ablution stations at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, focusing his objections on how the $300,000 privately funded project was approved and why the identity of its financial backer has not been publicly disclosed.
Documents filed with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation describe plans to add one station inside a men’s restroom and another inside a women’s restroom in Terminal D.
The low-level washing basins are intended to accommodate wudu, the ritual washing performed by Muslims before prayer, including washing the feet.
According to the project documents, construction was scheduled to begin Aug. 31 and be completed by the end of the year.
Parker, a Republican who chairs the Texas Senate Committee on Transportation and represents portions of Tarrant County, is questioning whether the airport followed an adequately public and standardized process before approving permanent alterations to the facility.
In a letter to the DFW Airport Board of Directors, Parker emphasized that his concern extends beyond the source of funding.
“I want to be direct with the Board. I object to how this decision was made. Dallas Fort Worth International Airport is a public asset, owned by two Texas cities and governed by a board that answers to them. Permanent modifications to that asset — regardless of who pays for them — ought to be made under a published standard, applied evenhandedly, through a process the public can see. On the record available to me, none of that appears to have occurred here. A project of obvious public interest was routed through what appears to be an administrative approval, with an undisclosed private funder, and the people of North Texas learned of it from a permit filing.
“That is a failure of process, and it is one this Board can correct. It appears that DFW appears to be setting precedent about who may pay to alter a public facility without first having written a rule that would govern the next request, and the one after that. Good governance requires the rule to come first.”
Parker’s argument centers on whether DFW Airport has established a formal policy governing privately financed modifications requested for religious or other specialized purposes.
The senator said allowing a private entity to finance permanent changes to a public facility without a publicly established framework could create a precedent for future requests.
He followed his letter with a more concise statement posted on X.
“$300,000. No Board vote. No name on the check. DFW is a public airport. Texans deserve to know who’s making decisions about it and who’s paying for them.”
The project is described as privately financed, meaning its reported $300,000 cost would not necessarily come directly from airport or taxpayer funds. Parker, however, argued that private financing does not eliminate the need for public accountability when the work involves permanent changes to publicly owned property.
DFW International Airport is owned by the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth and governed by a board representing those municipal interests.
Parker said that ownership structure makes the process by which permanent facilities are approved a matter of public interest.
His letter raises two principal questions: who is financing the project and what written policy, if any, DFW used to approve it.
Parker also warned that approving the ablution stations without first establishing a generally applicable standard could leave the airport without a clear framework for evaluating similar requests from other religious organizations, private donors or interest groups in the future.
The dispute therefore goes beyond whether Muslim travelers should have facilities available for ritual washing.
Parker’s stated objection is that DFW should establish transparent rules before permitting privately funded groups to make permanent alterations to airport property, and that those rules should be applied consistently regardless of the organization or religious practice involved.
The planned facilities would provide dedicated space for Muslim passengers to perform ritual washing without using conventional restroom sinks or other fixtures not designed for washing the feet.
The project documents indicate that both men’s and women’s facilities are planned for Terminal D.
Parker is now pressing the airport board to address the approval process before the work proceeds.
“Good governance requires the rule to come first,” he wrote.
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