Condemning the Support of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Other Terrorist Organizations At Institutions of Higher Education, Which May Lead to the Creation of A Hostile Environment for Jewish Students, Faculty, and Staff

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of the resolution offered by the gentleman from Utah, Mr. Owens. America's institutions of higher education should be welcoming learning environments for all students and faculty. I strongly denounce antisemitism: it has no place on our Nation's campuses.

That said, the resolution does not completely paint an accurate picture of what took place on some of the campuses it mentions. For example, while the resolution describes the actions taken by a Stanford instructor, it does not report that the instructor was suspended by the University. Furthermore, the resolution fails to acknowledge that the Brandeis University Student Union, as the University described in a statement designed to correct the record, ``decided to strongly condemn Hamas, and it has communicated its stance to the Brandeis community, and the media more broadly.'' As a co-equal branch of the federal government, Congressional documents should be accurate and reflect the truth of the matters they assert. We must be especially careful when pointing out instances of antisemitism as my colleagues in the majority have reminded us before, accusations of racism (including antisemitism) are easily weaponized in our modern era.

Congress must also be vigilant to ensure that college campuses remain places where freedom of speech and thought are maintained. I know this is an important issue to my colleagues in the majority as they have convened multiple hearings on free speech on campuses.

As we denounce actions that create unsafe spaces for Jewish students on our Nation's campus, we must also recognize that while the First Amendment does not protect threats or fighting words, it does protect unpopular and abhorrent speech. It is in trying and tense political moments like this that it is easy for us to forget our truly American ideals with regard to free speech--debates on issues like this are simply outlawed in other Western democracies. I firmly believe the solution to bad speech is more speech. To that end, we should reject attempts to restrict student association or limit speech that may feel comforting but compromise the very freedoms that make America exceptional. I commend the American Civil Liberties Union for their open letter to College and University leaders asking them to reject efforts to restrict constitutionally protected speech on campuses.

The inaccuracies in the resolution, and concerns about free speech notwithstanding, we realize that instances of antisemitism on college campuses have risen precipitously in the past few weeks. And while this recent rise is attributable to events in Israel and Gaza, the fact is antisemitic acts on college campuses have been on the rise for the last six years.

As such, H. Res. 798 is a missed opportunity, to recognize that issues of racial hostility on college campuses are broader and older than the events it cites. Over six years ago, after an uptick in racial incidents on college campuses, I wrote a letter to Chairwoman Foxx requesting a hearing ``to examine how institutions of higher education are meeting their responsibility under title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VI prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in `any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.'1A'' In that letter, I contextualized attempts by the Trump Administration to investigate the use of race in admissions, use that had recently been affirmed in the Supreme Court case Fisher v. University of Texas-Austin (Fisher II).

While some of us may have forgotten, 2017 saw a marked increase in racially hostile events on campuses. In a 2017 report describing the uptick in racially hostile events on campus, the Anti-Defamation League

(ADL) said ``White supremacists, emboldened by the 2016 elections and the current political climate, are currently engaged in an unprecedented outreach effort to attract and recruit students on American college campuses.'' Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the ADL, was quoted in that same report saying ``[w]hile there have been recruitment efforts in the past, never have we seen antisemites and white supremacists so focused on outreach to students on campus.'' Some of the most infamous events in that year included:

the hanging of nooses with bananas in them on the campus of American University the day after the election of the school's first black student body president, Ms. Taylor Dumpson;

the racially charged murder of Richard Collins, III, a black ROTC student at Bowie State University, during a visit to the University of Maryland, College Park; and

the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in which white supremacists marched unmasked through the grounds of the University of Virginia, carrying torches and chanting racist and Anti-Semitic phrases such as ``Jews will not replace us!'' and ``Blood and Soil!'', direct allusions to Anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and Nazi sentiments from the 1930s. Later that weekend, counter-protestor Heather Heyer was murdered, and 35 others injured by an attacker in his car as they protested the Anti-Semitic and racist presence in Charlottesville.

My request for a hearing on this issue was ignored, and instead, I convened, in partnership with House Judiciary then-Ranking Member John Conyers, an issue forum on September 8, 2017 entitled, ``Affirmative Action, Inclusion, and Racial Climate on America's Campuses.'' In my prepared remarks for that forum, I said:

The presence of some students of color at some predominantly white institutions is questioned, even though those same schools afford advantages to legacy students, families of wealthy donors, and students who have benefited from high-quality education because of the inequities in the educational system. When confronted with racist behavior on campus, students are often told that the First Amendment protects such behavior.

Since that initial request in 2017, I welcome the recognition by the majority that colleges have a duty to provide healthy learning environments for all students. This is a point Democrats have made consistently in the wake of issues surrounding racial hostility and free speech on college campuses. We have done so while having to hear past and current colleagues mock students as ``snowflakes'' and assert the problem when it comes to free speech on campus is that students are not being allowed to ``freely express their beliefs without the fear of retribution from fellow students, faculty, and administrators.'' I am glad that the majority has finally woken up to the realization that free speech issues cannot be separated from demographic changes on campus, the legacy of structural racism and the recent explosion in hate speech on campus. I only wish that the majority would realize that the same protections that apply to Jewish students must be enforced for other students as well.

Under the majority's leadership in the House, we have had multiple hearings and markups where the mere existence of trans students has been questioned. Research shows that due to stigma, trans youth experience depression and suicidal ideation at disproportionate rates compared to their peers. Recent data from the CDC show that transgender youth are 10 times more likely to experience homelessness. Transgender students are also more likely to feel unsafe at school, to experience bullying and other forms of violence including being threatened with a weapon at school, and social isolation. Experiences of a hostile school climate, potentially compounded by an unstable living situation, lead to disproportionate drop out rates for these students. Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, was modeled after Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; in the same way schools have to provide safe learning environments to all students irrespective of race, they must also do so irrespective of sexual orientation or gender identity. Democrats have consistently raised this issue only for it to fall on deaf ears with our majority colleagues.

Our committee has held multiple hearings and markups where the idea of having professionals tasked with making sure our colleges and universities are diverse, equitable, and inclusive (DEI) has been ridiculed. We have attempted to explain that institutions of higher education that were not designed to serve diverse student populations are facing specific challenges related to the changing demographics of their student bodies, and having DEI personnel on hand to address these issues can help schools foster the healthy learning environment all students need. To suggest that efforts aimed at inclusion are somehow responsible for the proliferation of AntiSemitic acts on college campuses, as the sponsor of this resolution suggested in closing debate on the resolution, defies belief.

Under Title VI, institutions of higher education have a duty to provide safe learning environments for all students. What's true for Jewish students now was just as true for Black and Brown students six years ago. This resolution could recognize the universality of the charge in our civil rights laws and call for an end to hostility towards all students on campus based on race, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity, but it fails to do so, and as such is a missed opportunity.

And while some might claim that antisemitic behavior is what is on the rise now, the Federal Bureau of Investigations Director Christopher Wray in testimony to Congress just this week highlighted that events in the Middle East are resulting in increases in threats against both Jewish Americans and Muslim Americans--explicitly referencing the murder of a six-year old boy for no other reason than he was Muslim, an incident the FBI is currently investigating as a federal hate crime.

As I did in 2017, I continue to support efforts to ensure that all schools are safe and healthy learning environments for students. For that reason, I support H. Res. 798. Hate has no place on college campuses, and speech that has crossed the line into threats and hostility directed at Jewish students, or any other group of students, must be exposed and denounced. I firmly believe that colleges and universities can live up to their Title VI obligations to all students, provide forums for students to exercise their rights of free speech and free expression, and be the cauldrons of thought that produce the critical thinkers our country needs to solve the challenges of today and the future.

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