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Prospects looked promising earlier this year for the Antisemitism Awareness Act, the bipartisan legislation that passed the House by a 320-91 vote in May, following shocking scenes of anti-Israel protests on college campuses. The bill was buoyed by advocacy from major American Jewish organizations amid a nationwide wave of antisemitism.

The legislation codifies a Trump-era executive order declaring that antisemitism is a prohibited form of discrimination in schools and universities, and that the Department of Education should use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism in assessing cases of antisemitic discrimination.

But after the bill passed the House, the legislation soon ground to a halt in the Senate. Efforts to add the bill to one of two larger legislative packages that Congress has worked on over the past month ultimately did not pan out, despite an attempt at dealmaking. 

And with just days left in the congressional session and lawmakers now scrambling to avert an imminent government shutdown beginning Friday night, it appears likely that the bill will be left on the cutting room floor, and Congress will conclude its business, in the worst period of antisemitism in decades, without passing any major new legislation on the issue.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) largely controls the Senate floor and could have brought the bill to a Senate floor vote after pledging that he’d take action on the bill this year.

Schumer had been reluctant to bring the antisemitism legislation up for a standalone Senate floor vote out of concern that such a move might expose a significant divide among Senate Democrats over the legislation, according to two sources familiar with the legislation.

In the Senate, progressive Democrats and a small number of hard-right Republicans would be expected to oppose — or in some cases, have already expressed opposition to — the bill over its use of the IHRA definition.

Some progressives believe the definition inappropriately declares certain criticism of Israel to be antisemitic, and 70 Democrats opposed the legislation in the House. Some conservatives have also expressed free speech concerns; some specifically claim that the definition is anti-Christian because one of the IHRA definition’s affiliated examples states that it’s antisemitic to accuse Jews of killing Jesus. Twenty-one largely far-right Republicans voted against the bill in the House.

The claim by some right-wing Republicans that the legislation could deem parts of the New Testamentantisemitic has led to some additional opposition to the bill among conservatives since it initially passed the House.

Another source familiar with the negotiations offered an alternative explanation for Schumer’s reluctance to bring the bill to the floor. His office, the source said, had been informed that a Republican would insist on an amendment vote related to the IHRA language about accusing Jews of killing Jesus. The source said that Schumer wanted to avoid a vote on the subject on the Senate floor, viewing it as harmful to the Jewish community.

Schumer has the power to block amendment votes, but such a scenario would have required a longer series of votes which would have taken multiple weeks of Senate floor time. The source said Schumer believed at the time he had an alternative pathway to avoid both of those scenarios: adding the AAA to the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, one of Congress’ annual “must-pass” bills that often serves as a vehicle for a host of other legislation.

Schumer told Jewish groups that he planned to put forward the AAA as an amendment to the NDAA, and asked Jewish groups to advocate for the idea with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and others on the Hill, according to a source familiar with a meeting between Schumer and Jewish groups on the subject earlier this year.

That source said that Schumer, at the time, also planned to pursue the Countering Antisemitism Act, another bipartisan antisemitism bill that has run into roadblocks on both sides of the aisle and never advanced in either chamber.

A source familiar with the negotiations said that, because Schumer had heard no objections from Johnson about adding the AAA to the NDAA during the time Schumer had been discussing the issue with Jewish groups, he had assumed Johnson would approve Schumer’s request when he formally submitted it.

But a different source familiar with the situation said that Johnson’s office had been unaware of Schumer’s plans until the Senate majority leader put forward the request during NDAA talks in mid-November. Johnson quickly issued a public statement rejecting the request, saying that the NDAA should remain limited in scope and that the Senate should hold a floor vote on the legislation.

“It has been reported that Leader Schumer wants to avoid a vote of accountability and instead attach the Antisemitism Awareness Act to the annual NDAA legislation. By necessity, the NDAA will be strictly limited to matters pertaining to national security,” Johnson said in a statement to Jewish Insider hours after Schumer publicly made the offer. Johnson’s office didn’t provide further comment for this story.

Adding the legislation to the NDAA would have generated political backlash for Johnson, given conservative ire about the AAA, a source familiar with the talks said. Several House Republicans and conservative influencers publicly blasted the House for passing the bill earlier this year.

Republicans will have a razor-thin majority in the House next year, and Johnson will need his conference party to remain largely united behind him to be re-elected as House speaker.

But the possibility of a deal on the NDAA was revived after Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), the lead sponsor of the AAA, talked to Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), who voted against the AAA in the House, about a potential path forward. Lawler had initially seemed open to Schumer’s NDAA proposal, but rejected it after Johnson did the same.

Lawler and Roy agreed, according to two sources, to put forward a proposal that the AAA be added to the NDAA and paired with House-passed legislation, led by Roy, to place sanctions on the International Criminal Court, which Senate Democrats opposed. 

Roy didn’t respond to a request for comment. Lawler didn’t address the proposal, instead pointing blame at Schumer for the bill’s failure in a statement.

Johnson agreed to present the Lawler-Roy ICC proposal to Schumer, according to three sources familiar with the situation.

Schumer then deputized Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), the lead Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who had been leading negotiations on a potential compromise bill on the ICC with Senate Republicans earlier in the year, to try to find a compromise on the ICC, two sources said.

Democrats have argued that the ICC legislation as passed in the House was too broad and would have impacted U.S. allies that are members of the court in addition to the court itself and its personnel.

Two sources said Cardin connected with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a key GOP advocate for the ICC sanctions, about negotiating a compromise bill, but Graham and Senate Republicans ultimately rebuffed the effort, expecting that they’ll be able to pass the full sanctions package as written, or that the Trump administration will implement it itself, in the new year.

Cardin and Graham didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Schumer ultimately told Johnson that he would not accept the proposal to include the ICC legislation as passed by the House, three sources said. One source familiar with the negotiations said that Schumer had presented an alternative version of the ICC bill that did not have support from Senate Republicans, which Johnson did not accept. 

No further offers were made for potential compromises, according to three sources familiar with the talks.

When the NDAA talks closed without a resolution on the Antisemitism Awareness Act, Schumer again put forward the legislation as a potential amendment to government funding legislation known as a continuing resolution, but Johnson continued to insist on a standalone Senate vote.

AAA ARGUMENT 

Schumer says that defense bill is ‘the only way’ to pass Antisemitism Awareness Act

That CR, released on Tuesday evening, collapsed on Wednesday amid objections from President-elect Donald Trump, members of his administration and far-right lawmakers to a series of other bills that were attached to it. Lawmakers have been forced to return to the drawing board to figure out how to avert a government shutdown, set to begin Friday evening.

A source close to Schumer said he could not begin pursuing alternative options to pass the AAA — potentially on the Senate floor — until the CR negotiations came to their conclusion earlier this week.

The source added that Schumer’s plans for any other legislation for the remainder of the congressional session are now uncertain given the government funding stalemate and looming shutdown. Lawmakers were initially expected to leave town by Friday.

“Senator Schumer will continue to work tirelessly across the aisle to pass AAA until we succeed,” spokesperson Angelo Roefaro told JI earlier this week, before the CR collapsed.

Some advocates who’ve been pushing for the AAA argue that Schumer is principally or solely responsible for the bill’s failure because he never put it on the Senate floor.

William Daroff, the CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, blasted Schumer in a Dec. 12 op-ed for failing to bring the legislation to a vote.

“Despite the urgent nature of the issue, Congress has been sitting on its hands,” Daroff said.

“Though the House overwhelmingly passed the AAA last spring, the Senate refuses to budge. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will not schedule a vote on the bill. The Senate must stop hemming and hawing. Our children are suffering.”

Daroff also noted that, at the time, ongoing negotiations on legislative packages provided “many avenues to passage that are waiting to be capitalized on.”

Lawler, one of the bill’s biggest House champions, slammed Schumer, and blamed him for fearing the wrath of the progressives in his party. “Senator Schumer has had months to move the Antisemitism Awareness Act in a simple floor vote — there is no excuse for not bringing this to the floor other than his fear of Bernie Sanders and political considerations,” Lawler said in a statement. 

Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), the bill’s lead Senate Republican sponsor, said that the Democratic-led Senate “wastes time on show votes and posturing” instead of passing the AAA.

“Antisemitism continues to stoke its hateful flames on college campuses and, now more than ever, it is crucial we stamp it out,” Scott continued. “I remain committed to working with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to get this bill across the finish line and uphold our responsibility to stand with our Jewish brothers and sisters and against antisemitic violence and hatred.”

A source familiar with the negotiations accused Schumer of trying to deflect blame for his own failures onto Johnson.

“The House passed this in May. Schumer has had this legislation since May. There is nothing that was stopping him from bringing it to the floor for a vote since May, nobody. He is the majority leader. He surely doesn’t act like it. Shows no leadership,” the source said.

The source objected to Schumer’s public statements that he had been working on a pathway that would ensure the legislation passed: “OK, well where is it?” 

The source defended Johnson, saying that he had taken criticism for passing the bill in the first place. “Johnson at least had the courage to bring it up for a vote and took flack from his crazy right. [Schumer], what have you done to take crap from your crazy left?”

Another source familiar with the talks invoked Spider-man, quipping, “As another New Yorker was famous to say, ‘With great power comes great responsibility.’” 

Roefaro, Schumer’s spokesperson, argued that Johnson is ultimately responsible for the bill’s failure because he didn’t add it to the NDAA.

“Putting AAA in the defense bill was the best and easiest way to pass it. But Speaker Johnson refused to do that,” Roefaro said. “If the blatantly political ‘sources’ for this story genuinely wanted to pass the bill, instead of putting pressure only on Schumer, they would have put equal pressure on Johnson, who is the ultimate reason it did not pass.”

Others say that there’s blame to be shared on Capitol Hill — including by Johnson.

A source familiar with the negotiations said that Schumer will ultimately take the blame in the Jewish community, but that he did make a real effort to add the AAA to the NDAA and the CR. They noted the significant political pressures that Johnson faced in opposition to adding the legislation to a package.

“[Schumer] did try to put it on the NDAA and the CR and failed,” the source said. “[The Jewish community is] not going to buy the reasons. [They’ll say], ‘You had the opportunity and you didn’t get it on [the NDAA], so you failed.’ But [Schumer] really did try. He worked his ass off on the CR and the NDAA.”

They continued that Johnson deserves some blame for refusing to add the legislation to a package, “but the reason he didn’t do it is he [passed it] already,” and could have faced threats to his speakership if he tried to add the legislation to the NDAA or CR. 

Similar threats have now come to fruition over other provisions that had been included in the original CR, and Johnson’s re-election as speaker is increasingly uncertain following a right-wing revolt.

“Was [Johnson] at fault? Sure. He passed it once,” the source said. “But he was putting the pressure on and he said, ‘Get me out of this. I’ve got these right-wing guys that don’t like this Christ stuff, but we passed it anyhow. Now you [Schumer] go pass it and we won’t have any trouble with it.’”

Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, called it “a shame” that the bill is not likely to pass Congress, lamenting that “politics seem to have gotten in the way” of its passage, noting the issues in both the Senate and House. He declined to assign blame specifically to any congressional leaders.

“Bottom line, it’s just a shame because… there’s bipartisan support in the House,” Greenblatt said. “I know there’s a critical mass of electeds on both sides of the aisle in both houses who would support this thing.”

Asked whether Schumer should have pursued a standalone vote on the legislation, given the expected strong support for it in the Senate, Greenblatt responded, “I know what he was trying to do. I just wish it had worked out differently.”

Sheila Katz, the CEO of the National Council of Jewish Women, defended Schumer.

“People who try to scapegoat Leader Schumer for government inaction and antisemitism are grossly misguided and insult his extensive career championing the Jewish people,” Katz said. “He cares about protecting the Jewish people. He wants legislation that helps Jews in this country to pass, and he knows what he’s doing.”

She added that it’s “tragic to think, in the year since Oct. 7, that major legislation combating antisemitism didn’t go through. And everyone is responsible. It’s unacceptable. And the people hurt right now the most are Jews all around the country who are navigating antisemitism each and every day, in the multiplicity of ways that it plays out. And our community deserves better.”

“We could point fingers all we want, but we’ve got to get to work,” Katz concluded.

NCJW has prioritized the Countering Antisemitism Act but did not oppose AAA.

Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), the lead Senate sponsor of the AAA, said he’s “obviously very frustrated” with the situation, adding that “that’ll have to be the work of the new Congress.”

“It’s important that we pass it because it’s an awful problem in the country and it has to be addressed,” Casey continued.

Two sources argued the Senate’s failure to pass the AAA before November was a factor in Casey’s election loss, noting that Sen.-elect David McCormick (R-PA) had repeatedly bashed Casey on the campaign trail over his failure to move the legislation forward. Casey lost by a margin of just .2 percentage points, in a state with a sizable Jewish population.

Asked if he thought he might have fared differently if the AAA had passed, Casey said he’d “let the political scientists figure that out.”

Karen Paikin Barall, vice president of government relations for the Jewish Federations of North America, said in a statement, “Jewish students should not have to wait for Congress to feel safe. Failure to pass the Antisemitism Awareness Act sends a message to universities and university presidents that Congress is not making this a priority issue and not looking out for the best interests of Jewish students.”

Barall emphasized the importance of codifying the policy.

But she added, “It’s not over ’til it’s over, so we have to keep trying until the very last minute. We must keep the issue alive and on the front burner, so if it doesn’t pass in this session, we’ll make sure it does in the 119th Congress.”

Julie Fishman Rayman, the managing director of policy and political affairs at the American Jewish Committee, called it “regretful that Congress will end this session without passing important legislation related to antisemitism, including AAA.”

“Undaunted, we look forward to continuing our work with Congress on bipartisan initiatives to counter antisemitism and make the Jewish community more safe and secure,” she continued.

Jewish Insider’s congressional correspondent Emily Jacobs contributed reporting.

https://jewishinsider.com/2024/12/how-the-antisemitism-awareness-act-fell-apart/