Republican lawmakers who sent letters to the presidents of Barnard College, Columbia University, the University of California, Berkeley, UCLA, Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northwestern University, Penn, Rutgers, and Cornell as part of their investigation included House Education and Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Chairman of the Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan (R-OH).
This campaign also includes House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO), Chairwoman of the Energy and Commerce Committee Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Chairman of the Oversight and Accountability Committee James Comer (R-KY), and Chairman of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee Frank Lucas (R-OK).
Republican leaders addressed separate letters to each school stating, “The U.S. House of Representatives is deeply concerned by ongoing and pervasive acts of antisemitic harassment and intimidation.” “It would be a terrible failure of duty on your part as President if you did not take urgent action to maintain a secure learning environment.
Because of the massive pro-Palestinian demonstrations that took place on each of these universities, they have all gained national attention. These protests have, in varied degrees, interfered with campus life and caused Jewish students to worry for their safety.
The GOP leaders stated in their letters that “the House of Representatives will not countenance the use of federal funds to indoctrinate students into hateful, antisemitic, anti-American supporters of terrorism.”
They continued, “To address this national crisis, investigations into campus antisemitism by the Committee on Education and the Workforce and the Committee on Ways and Means have been expanded into a Congress-wide probe across all relevant jurisdictions.”
The 1964 Civil Rights Act’s Title VI mandates that federally sponsored institutions protect the rights of minorities, including Jews. The House is looking into whether these institutions broke this law.
Federal funds are vital for these schools. Harvard, for instance, made up 66% of its revenue in 2023 with $676 million, and Northwestern came in second with $693 million.
FILE: On April 25, 2024, at an encampment at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, students are seen demonstrating against the war in Gaza and bystanders strolling through Harvard Yard. (File/AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
For months, antisemitic harassment on these campuses has been the subject of an investigation by the Committee on Education and the Workforce.
The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability joined this endeavor in the middle of May. They asked for access to internal data held by roughly two dozen nonprofit organizations that support pro-Palestinian demonstrations on many campuses, by federal authorities. These organizations might be breaking laws against terrorism and money laundering.
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The Committee on Ways and Means is interested because it has authority over the tax exemption that these institutions have been granted. Criminal law enforcement and civil freedoms are supervised by the House Judiciary Committee.
Furthermore, the government organizations that provide grants to colleges are under the authority of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. At several of these universities, research and development initiatives are supervised by the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.
