Sens. James Lankford and Jacky Rosen will introduce a sweeping, bipartisan bill Tuesday aimed at combating antisemitism.
The bill, which was first shared with POLITICO, would target antisemitism in education and online, as well as provide security grant funding.
“Those are three big issues that get talked about the most, so we tried to pull those together into one bill,” Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican, said in an interview. “We are trying to do this bipartisan, bicameral.”
Rosen, a Nevada Democrat who co-chairs the Senate’s bipartisan task force for combating antisemitism with Lankford, said in an interview the bill was “personal” and has “been over a year in the making.”
“It really is a coordinated federal response to help fight domestic antisemitism,” she added.
The measure would require the Department of Education to designate an antisemitism coordinator and lay out new regulations to combat antisemitism at colleges that receive DOE funding, including requiring those colleges to establish non-discrimination policies and grievance processes.
It would also boost nonprofit security grant funding to $1 billion that can be used by Jewish communities, as well create a new grant that can be used for places of worship. The bill would, in addition, require new disclosures about how online platforms moderate and respond to antisemitic content.
Rosen noted that she and Lankford will talk to their respective party leaders about how to advance the legislation — including looking at potential vehicles like a sweeping defense policy package — to get it through the Senate.
A companion bill is expected to be soon introduced in the House and the proposal has support from more than a dozen outside groups, including the American Jewish Committee, ADL and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.
“This legislation represents one of the strongest congressional responses we have seen to the alarming rise in antisemitism and targeted violence against the Jewish community,” said Eric Fingerhut, the Jewish Federations of North America president and CEO.
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