Nearly 10 months after Hamas’ terror attack on Israel and amid a surging wave of antisemitism in the United States, the Senate left Washington for its August recess without having held any hearings on antisemitism in the U.S. or passing or considering major antisemitism bills.

The Senate’s post-Oct. 7 record on antisemitism stands in contrast with the House, which passed the Antisemitism Awareness Act and has launched investigations of antisemitism across a series of committees and subcommittees, with a focus on campus antisemitism — though some Democrats criticize the House’s efforts as ineffectual and politically motivated.

The Senate has yet to take action on either of the two major antisemitism bills on its docket, the Antisemitism Awareness Act and the Countering Antisemitism Act, including committee-level markups. Senate leadership has faced accusations that it’s dragging its feet as well as calls to move forward more forcefully. 

The Senate did pass by unanimous consent a reauthorization of the Never Again Education Act, which supports Holocaust education programming through the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and has passed multiple nonbinding resolutions on antisemitism.

“We’re trying to work through to get a pathway to getting it passed the Senate,” Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), the lead Senate sponsor of the Antisemitism Awareness Act, told Jewish Insider before the Senate recess. “There’s obviously great consensus around both versions of the bill — my version with Sen. [Tim] Scott and the House-passed version.”

“Our leadership is trying to figure out a way to get it done,” Casey continued. “You know how the Senate is: we have limited time to get a whole series of high-priority items considered and this is one of them.”

Both the Antisemitism Awareness Act and key portions of the Countering Antisemitism Act have been introduced as amendments to be potentially attached to the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, which is likely to move forward this fall, but there’s no guarantee they’ll receive consideration.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) also helped lead the push for funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which protects Jewish and other nonprofit institutions, to be included in the Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan supplemental bill; $400 million was ultimately provided.

A Schumer spokesperson said that the Senate majority leader “is the reason” NSGP funding reached that level and he’s “actively working” to ensure higher funding for the legislation, also highlighting that the Senate passed a $14 billion aid bill for Israel. The spokesperson said that Schumer is also “working hard” to pass antisemitism legislation, without specifying which bill or bills. He’s a co-sponsor of the Countering Antisemitism Act.

Schumer also announced plans to release a book early next year about antisemitism.

Senate business often functions by unanimous consent, and there have been objections on both sides of the aisle to both of the major antisemitism bills. But Senate leadership also has the ability to bring legislation to the floor through other procedures to bypass those objections. Senate leaders are generally highly selective about how they use Senate floor time.

The Democratic-led Senate devoted floor time to the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, which addressed the rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans, in April 2021. The bill, which Schumer publicly pressured the House to take up, passed the upper chamber near-unanimously, 94-1. The antisemitism bills are proving to be more controversial.

Should they retake the Senate in November, Senate Republicans in contention for Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) role as majority leader promised to take a more aggressive approach to antisemitism.

Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD), told JI he believes the Senate should take up the Antisemitism Awareness Act. He vowed that a Republican-led Senate would not “tolerate” the scenes of antisemitism “reminiscent of 1930s Germany” seen on college campuses in the past year.

“Unfortunately, Leader Schumer has dedicated this summer to holding political show votes instead of legislating, and I have no expectation that he will bring up legislation that will further expose the growing problem of antisemitism within the Democrat Party,” he said.

“A Republican-controlled Senate will take this issue head-on. We will empower committees to advance legislation that addresses the threat of antisemitism, protects students on campus, and takes a hard look at the government’s business model dealing with the elite universities that receive enormous amounts of taxpayer dollars while enabling this abhorrent behavior,” Thune said.

The Senate is in session for just three more weeks before the 2024 election — when extending government funding will likely be the top priority — with five more session weeks between Election Day and the end of the year, when a range of other high-priority issues could take precedence, including government funding and the NDAA.

Additionally, despite a monthslong series of requests from key lawmakers, the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has declined to hold a hearing on campus antisemitism. Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) told JI in May that Sanders told Lankford he planned to hold a hearing on antisemitism and Islamophobia, but such a hearing hasn’t materialized.

Sanders hasn’t responded to questions about his plans on the subject.

The Senate Judiciary Committee, which some have also urged to hold hearings on antisemitism, announced in May that it would hold a hate crimes hearing prompted by “the ongoing and persistent rise in antisemitism and other forms of bigotry” since Oct. 7. 

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), who chairs the committee, announced his intention to hold a hearing on the same day that every Republican on the panel penned a letter urging him to convene one on “the civil rights violations of Jewish students and the proliferation of terrorist ideology on college campuses.”

But that hearing hasn’t yet been scheduled and it’s unclear who will be called to testify when it does occur.

Sidestepping committee leaders, senators have called two unofficial roundtables on campus antisemitism with Jewish students and other leaders since Oct. 7, one led by Republicans on Sanders’ committee, the other by Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Lankford, who co-chair the Senate antisemitism task force.

At the same time, key antisemitism legislation faces obstacles in the House as well.

The path forward for the Countering Antisemitism Act remains murky amid opposition from some key GOP leaders. Having amassed 60 co-sponsors for the bill, its lead sponsor, Rep. Kathy Manning (D-NC) recently again called on House leadership last week to bring the bill to a vote on the floor. 

“Congress must act NOW to address the alarming rise of antisemitism,” Manning said.

Key funding priorities for combating antisemitism in 2025 are not yet being met in either chamber, Jewish community groups have said. The House approved only a modest increase to Nonprofit Security Grant Program funding, below what Jewish groups have said is needed, and a cut to funding for the Department of Education office responsible for investigating campus antisemitism cases.

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved a modest increase to the Department of Education funding, albeit below the administration’s request level, and has yet to finalize its proposal for security grant funding, having pulled its Department of Homeland Security funding bill from consideration at a meeting last month.