Scores of political leaders, including nearly two dozen members of Congress from across the ideological spectrum, gathered in Washington, D.C., on Thursday for No Labels’ national conference to emphasize the importance of bipartisan dealmaking and nonpartisan governance in the next legislative year. 

Legislators in attendance — eight senators and 15 House lawmakers — said they were optimistic about opportunities for bipartisan cooperation on legislative issues.

The House Republican Steering Committee on Thursday recommended Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI) as the next chair of the Committee on Education and the Workforce and Rep. French Hill (R-AR) as the next chair of the House Financial Services Committee, selecting two lawmakers with records in support of the Jewish community and Israel for leadership roles on committees with authority over critical portfolios.

The steering committee’s recommendations effectively determine the committee leadership, though the decision must be ratified by House Republicans.

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), the outgoing chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on Thursday that the administration should use its authority to lift U.S. sanctions on Syria should the new government, still in formation, make progress to improve the human rights situation and other violations by the former Assad regime.

“It’s too early to tell whether the incoming regime’s record will reflect a different way of doing business,” Cardin said at his last in a regular series of sit-downs with reporters before his retirement at the end of the year. “If the corrections are made, if the respect for Syrians is being adhered to as in the language we hear, then it would be totally appropriate to eliminate those sanctions. It’s too early to make those judgments.”

A group of 77 House Democrats signed on to a letter to the Biden administration on Thursday accusing Israel of violating U.S. arms sales law and of failing to rectify issues, a situation that could trigger the suspension of offensive arms sales to Israel.

While the letter does not make an explicit request to halt aid, it references the statute requiring the administration to cut off arms sales to countries that block delivery of humanitarian aid, and accuses Israel of deliberately restricting aid.

A new report by the American Jewish Committee’s New England branch found that the Massachusetts Teachers Association has been actively encouraging members to introduce “overtly political” anti-Israel materials into K-12 classrooms after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks, reducing “a complex struggle between two people” to an “extreme, one-sided narrative.”

The report, released on Thursday, cites multiple instances in which the MTA, the largest teachers’ union in the state, has embraced activist stances on the ongoing conflict that have drawn allegations of antisemitism from some teachers and parents. 

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is accusing the State Department of potentially becoming “inappropriately entangled in deliberations over safety” that influenced U.S. airlines’ continued refusal to fly to Israel. 

Cruz, the incoming chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, told Jewish Insider that he “welcomes a full investigation of these issues” after more than a year of airlines refusing to resume regular service to the Jewish state. 

Jewish leaders expressed “deep concern” in a letter on Wednesday to the president of the National Association of Independent Schools — a group that counts more than 100 Jewish day schools as members — after the association held a recent conference where several speakers accused Israel of genocide and spread anti-Israel rhetoric. 

At the NAIS People of Color Conference (PoCC), held last week in Denver, “a Jewish student stated that he and his peers ‘felt so targeted, so unsafe, that we tucked our Magen Davids in our shirts and walked out as those around us glared and whispered,’” according to the letter.

A bipartisan group of senators gathered in the Kennedy Caucus Room on Wednesday to call for a crackdown on Iranian aggression and demand a free and democratic Iran at a luncheon hosted by the Organization of Iranian American Communities.

Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) all spoke at the gathering about their respective commitments to opposing the mullahs in Tehran and fighting for a return to a democratic Iran. The luncheon featured a keynote address from Maryam Rajavi, the Iranian dissident politician and leader of the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, about the people-led movement to overthrow the Iranian regime.