WASHINGTON – Today, Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and all 24 Committee Republicans sent a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona blasting the Department’s decision to delay rulemaking under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 originally expected this month amidst a national crisis of campus antisemitism. The rulemaking would protect Jewish students by implementing President Trump’s December 2019 Executive Order on Combating Anti-Semitism.
In the letter, the lawmakers write: “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…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 lawmakers continue: “There are also concerns about the seriousness of your Department’s Title VI antisemitism investigations and the possibility that their outcomes have been predetermined. The day after your Department announced civil rights investigations of several schools, you said the following: ‘Look, if an institution refuses to follow the law to protect students, we would withhold dollars. That said… I haven’t spoken to a college leader that doesn’t want to do everything they can. Right now what we’re doing is giving them resources.’ It is difficult to trust the Department to investigate violations of Title VI when your own public statements suggest that you have already come to your own conclusions about the scope of the problem and have decided that alleged efforts by schools satisfies their legal obligations.”
Education and the Workforce Committee Republicans include: Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC), House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY), Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-PA), and Representatives Joe Wilson (R-SC), Tim Walberg (R-MI), Glenn Grothman (R-WI), Rick Allen (R-GA), Jim Banks (R-IN), Lloyd Smucker (R-PA), Burgess Owens (R-UT), Bob Good (R-VA), Lisa McClain (R-MI), Mary Miller (R-IL), Michelle Steel (R-CA), Ron Estes (R-KS), Julia Letlow (R-LA), Kevin Kiley (R-CA), Aaron Bean (R-FL), Eric Burlison (R-MO), Nataniel Moran (R-TX), John James (R-MI), Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-OR), Brandon Williams (R-NY), and Erin Houchin (R-IN).
To read the full letter, click here.
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