WASHINGTON — Pressure on President Carter is mounting from politicians outraged that he will meet today with the leader of the military wing of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal.

In the House this week, Rep. Joseph Knollenberg, a Republican from Michigan, introduced the Coordinated American Response to Extreme Radicals Act, or CARTER Act. The bill would cut off federal funding for the Carter Center, the Emory University-based center that monitors elections, works on developing world health issues, and is dedicated to “waging peace,” as the ex-president is quoted as saying on the center’s Web site. Since 2001, the center has received $19 million in federal funding.

Mr. Knollenberg told The New York Sun that support for the bill has been overwhelming in the first 24 hours since he introduced it. He said already eight Democrats have said they will support the bill. Also, the Republican leadership in the House has thrown its support behind it, according to Mr. Knollenberg.

Meanwhile, Rep. Susan Myrick, a Republican of North Carolina, called on Secretary of State Rice to revoke Mr. Carter’s passport. Mr. Knollenberg, who sits on the House subcommittee that funds the Carter Center, said the purpose of his bill is to have America speak with one voice against engaging terrorists. “We are going to break ties with President Carter,” he said.

The former president met yesterday with some Hamas officials in Cairo and also spoke at the American University there. In his speech he called Israel’s semi-blockade of the Gaza strip a “crime,” an “atrocity,” and an “abomination,” according to Reuters.

He also said his meeting Friday in Damascus with Mr. Meshaal, who has threatened a terrorist retaliation against Israel if America or the Jewish state bombs Iran’s nuclear facilities, may set an example for other elder statesmen. “One of the reasons I wanted to come and meet with the Syrians and Hamas was to set an example that might be emulated by others,” he said. Mr. Carter also said he knew of some Israeli officials who also favored direct contacts with Hamas. Jerusalem has hinted that it would be open to limited negotiations with the group over the return of am Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, who was kidnapped in 2006.

The White House has urged Mr. Carter not to go to meet with Mr. Meshaal, claiming that the visit confers prestige and legitimacy to a group undermining the West Bank government of Mahmoud Abbas, the Fatah leader whose party lost the 2006 legislative elections to Hamas. In June 2007, Hamas forced Fatah to abandon the security services in Gaza and took effective control of the strip of land Israel won from Egypt in the 1967 Six Day War.

The chairman of the House subcommittee that oversees American policy towards the Middle East, Gary Ackerman, a Democrat of New York, yesterday said he thought the CARTER Act was “rather silly,” and “reactionary.” At the same time, Mr. Ackerman, who wrote a letter with the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Howard Berman, a Democrat of California, urging Mr. Carter not to visit Mr. Meshaal, had harsh words for Mr. Carter.

“The man is entitled his idiotic, moronic, nonsensical, anti-commonsensical, foolish opinions. And all that being said, he is still entitled to have them. I don’t think we should be cutting off funding for any ex presidents to do things. We didn’t cut off Richard Nixon,” he said. Mr. Ackerman added that if Mr. Carter came to his home for the Passover Seder, he would ask him to read the part of the simple son, the boy who does not know enough to even ask a question about the story of the Jewish exodus from ancient Egypt.

Rep. Brad Sherman, a Democrat from California, said he was open to supporting the CARTER Act. “I will take a look at it, and see what it is,” he said. “I will see if that is the best use of federal funds. Obviously I cannot look at every thing the federal government pays for. But this sounds like a good idea to analyze this funding.”

One issue for Democrats will be whether Mr. Carter will speak at the national convention in Denver scheduled for August. The editor-in-chief of the New Republic, Martin Peretz, this week urged Democrats not to let the ex-president speak. “If the Democrats want to win Florida in November they should try to keep him in Plains or send him on another voyage to Darfur where his syrupy cynicism is also well-understood,” he wrote.

The final word on speakers at the convention is usually the presumptive presidential nominee. Mr. Sherman said, “When I first spoke at the convention, not a whole lot of you reporters were paying attention. It was 3 p.m. on the first day. Among the avenues to pursue is to give him the same speaking slot they gave me,” Mr. Sherman said.

Mr. Ackerman said, “I think he is no longer ready for prime time.”