In a letter, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., urged his counterpart in the chamber’s Republican majority, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to put a bipartisan bill aimed at fighting antisemitism up for a vote.

What You Need To Know

  • House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries urged Speaker Mike Johnson to take action on a bipartisan bill aimed at fighting antisemitism

  • Earlier this month, a bipartisan group of House and Senate lawmakers introduced a bill that would establish a National Coordinator to Counter Antisemitism within the White House

  • The letter comes amid widespread pro-Palestinian protests at college campuses nationwide; it also comes in the wake of a recent report from the Anti-Defamation League which showed incidents of antisemitism reaching an all-time high in 2023

  • The House is set to vote on a separate piece of legislation to combat anti-Jewish hate this week, the Antisemitism Awareness Act introduced by New York Rep. Mike Lawler

Earlier this month, a bipartisan group of House and Senate lawmakers — Sens. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., and James Lankford, R-Okla., and Reps. Kathy Manning, D-N.C., Chris Smith, R-N.J., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa. — introduced the Bipartisan Countering Antisemitism Act, a bill that would establish a National Coordinator to Counter Antisemitism within the White House.

The newly created role would serve as the president’s principal adviser on anti-Jewish hate, coordinating federal efforts to counter antisemitism, chairing an interagency task force on the issue, undertake an annual analysis of antisemitism online and direct federal agencies to submit a report to Congress about their implementation of the U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, a first-of-its-kind initiative unveiled by President Joe Biden last year. It would also mandate U.S. security agencies to produce an annual threat assessment about "antisemitic violent extremism” and establish May as “Jewish American Heritage Month."

The lawmakers serve as co-chairs of the respective Senate and House Bipartisan Task Forces for Combating Antisemitism. The bill has more than 30 cosponsors in the House, enjoying support from Democrats and Republicans alike.

Jeffries’ letter, urging Johnson to “urgently consider” the bill, makes him the highest profile figure in the House to push for the legislation.

“The effort to crush antisemitism and hatred in any form is not a Democratic or Republican issue,” Jeffries wrote. “It’s an American issue that must be addressed in a bipartisan manner with the fierce urgency of now. In this spirit, I strongly urge you to schedule a vote on the bipartisan Countering Antisemitism Act forthwith.”

The letter comes amid widespread pro-Palestinian protests at college campuses nationwide. Some lawmakers have denounced the demonstrations as antisemitic — an assertion that protesters have pushed back on — with some Republicans even calling on President Biden to call in the National Guard to protect Jewish students.

It also comes in the wake of a recent report from the Anti-Defamation League which showed incidents of antisemitism reaching an all-time high in 2023, with a spike coming in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which started the war in Gaza.

Lawmakers echoed Jeffries’ call to put forward the legislation for a vote.

“If @SpeakerJohnson is serious about taking meaningful action against the historic rise of antisemitism and not just scoring cheap political points, he will bring the Bipartisan Countering Antisemitism Act to the floor,” New York Rep. Jerry Nadler, who criticized the Louisiana Republican’s recent visit to Columbia University, the site of one of the most notable pro-Palestinian protests, said on social media.

“Given the alarming rise of antisemitism, Congress should act by passing the bipartisan, bicameral Countering Antisemitism Act - comprehensive legislation to strengthen the federal government's response to antisemitism,” Manning wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

The House is set to vote on a separate piece of legislation to combat anti-Jewish hate this week, the Antisemitism Awareness Act introduced by New York Rep. Mike Lawler, a Republican, and backed by 46 Democrats and Republicans in the lower chamber. A companion bill in the Senate has the support of 12 Republican lawmakers.

That bill would mandate that the Department of Education use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism in enforcing anti-discrimination rules. Part of that definition includes “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor,” “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” and “holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.”

There is some division in the House Democratic conference on that bill. While some Democrats — like Reps. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., Pat Ryan, D-N.Y., Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., and Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas — are cosponsors of the legislation, Nadler, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, opposes it.