E&W Blog

House puts HHS on notice to ensure universities receiving federal funding are free of 'antisemitic behavior'
Aubrie Spady
September 19, 2024
 
FIRST ON FOX: House members are taking steps to ensure that universities receiving federal funds are complying with civil rights laws amid a House-wide effort to crack down on antisemitism on college campuses.
 
The Committee on Energy and Commerce and the Committee on Education and the Workforce sent a joint letter to the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra on Wednesday asking whether there have been any complaints of "unacceptable antisemitic behavior" from educational institutions receiving federal grants.
 
HHS awards federal funding to universities through National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants, which require that institutions receiving funding are free of discriminatory harassment, according to the NIH Grants Policy Statement.
 
"These concerns stem from the unacceptable antisemitic behavior witnessed across college campuses – including encampments, calls for violence, and severe interruption to the learning and research environments," the letter, obtained first by Fox News Digital, reads.
 
The letter notes that the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) does provide guidance on what is or is not allowed on campus, as well as how people can be protected by federal civil rights laws, but demands further action should be taken.
 
"When a doctor takes the Hippocratic Oath, he or she pledges to do no harm and to treat all patients with respect. Unfortunately, it seems that there are HHS-funded medical institutions – including Columbia – that aren’t living up to that standard as they allow antisemitism to run rampant," Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "The goal of our committees is to ensure that no patient, professional, or student is subject to discrimination, and certainly not on the taxpayer’s dime."
 
Columbia University reportedly received $611,173,605 in NIH grants in fiscal year 2024, according to HHS' public page on NIH funding.
 
In their letter, the lawmakers requested that Columbia provide any and all complaints of a "hostile environment based on antisemitic discrimination, harassment, or safety concerns" received by the university, as well as how they were addressed.
 
Columbia University did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.
 
"We've been seeing health organizations, practices, schools, and associations take radical political positions whose only practical effect is to exclude Jews, as well as more blatant efforts to ostracize Jewish members of our community," Evan Bernstein, VP of community relations for Jewish Federations of North America, said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "We're hearing more and more concerns about this from our Federation communities across America, so we decided it was time to come to Washington to sound the alarm."