House GOP urges Cardona to enforce 2019 executive order to fight antisemitism

The Republican members of the House Education and Workforce Committee are urging Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to craft regulations meant to combat antisemitism in compliance with a Trump-era executive order.

In a letter to Cardona on Monday, the 25 GOP members of the committee, which is led by Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC), noted that while the executive order to combat antisemitism was enacted in December 2019, the department has repeatedly delayed efforts to enact regulations in line with the order’s directives.

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“A full four years after the signing of the EO, the Department has not issued even a proposed rule, pushing this down the line as well,” the letter said. “To be clear: not only has the Department failed to meet its obligation to create rules necessary for the execution of the EO, but it is also delaying any such action by another year. This is particularly egregious in the face of increased anti-Jewish hatred sweeping across American schools and college campuses which deserves action from the Department now, not later.”

Then-President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 13899 on Dec. 11, 2019, directing federal agencies to enforce nondiscrimination law under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to include discrimination against Jews.

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“It shall be the policy of the executive branch to enforce Title VI against prohibited forms of discrimination rooted in anti-Semitism as vigorously as against all other forms of discrimination prohibited by Title VI,” the order read.

The issue of antisemitism on college campuses has drawn increased scrutiny since the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas against Israel that claimed the lives of more than 1,200 people. Pro-Palestinian student groups and some faculty members at several major universities have gone so far as to suggest that Israel was responsible for the attacks. In the subsequent months, Jewish students have reported that they face an increasingly hostile environment on college campuses.

In their letter to Cardona, House Republicans ripped the secretary for “inaction on necessary and defensible rulemaking,” which they said “has left institutions of higher education and schools unprepared for and unwilling to address the fires of antisemitism that have swept campuses this fall.”

“Letters sent to your Department from Jewish groups and concerned Americans across the country have gone unanswered, and the Committee receives calls and emails daily from parents and students reporting antisemitism at their schools,” the lawmakers wrote. “You claim to take the fears of Jewish students seriously, but your words are undercut by your failure to address those fears through the Department’s regulatory process.”

The letter urges Cardona to “stop delaying implementation of the EO” and propose a regulation to conform with its directives.

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In a statement to the Washington Examiner, a spokesperson for the Department of Education said, “Any harassment or discrimination against students based on shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics, such as Jewish ancestry, is unacceptable and prevents our nation’s learners from achieving their full potential in the classroom.”

“The Department is working tirelessly to ensure that this rulemaking process is completed as soon as possible and anticipates completion well before December 2024,” the spokesperson said. “In the meantime, we will continue to adhere to Executive Order 13899 on Combating Anti-Semitism, and will continue to aggressively enforce Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to protect all students who participate in programs and activities funded by the Department from discrimination or harassment based on race, color, or national origin.”