Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) proposed incorporating the Antisemitism Awareness Act into the National Defense Authorization Act as part of negotiations with top congressional leaders, potentially putting the bill on a fast-track to passage, his office told Jewish Insider on Thursday.

Senate lawmakers have been discussing the possibility of holding an amendment vote to add the antisemitism bill, which has been stalled in the Senate for months after passing the House, to the National Defense Authorization Act.

But Schumer’s move in closed-door talks with the top congressional leadership — known as the four corners — could accelerate that process. If his proposal is approved by the House speaker and the Senate and House minority leaders, the Antisemitism Awareness Act would become part of the must-pass defense and national security policy bill and nearly assured to become law.

“As he always said he would, today, Senator Schumer offered the Antisemitism Awareness Act to be added to the NDAA, a must-pass vehicle, as an amendment in negotiations with congressional leaders,” Schumer spokesperson Angelo Roefaro said in a statement. “The GOP is taking a look at his request.”

Both House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) voted for the bill in the House.

Schumer has been under increasing pressure from the Jewish community and other lawmakers to call a vote on the bill, which passed the House with strong bipartisan support earlier this year. 

The legislation faces pockets of opposition from both progressives and conservatives on free speech grounds relating to criticism of Israel and the definition of antisemitism. If Schumer’s effort is successful, there would not be a Senate vote on the Antisemitism Awareness Act by itself.

Both the Senate and House would consider and vote on a version of the NDAA with the Antisemitism Awareness Act already included.

Senators have also introduced another, broader antisemitism bill, the Countering Antisemitism Act, as an amendment to the NDAA, which could receive a vote in the Senate. But it’s not clear that will happen, and the House has yet to move on the legislation. Key leaders in both parties and in both chambers oppose the legislation as written.

The Antisemitism Awareness Act would codify the Trump-era executive order that antisemitism, as defined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, is a form of discrimination prohibited on campuses and instructing the Department of Education to use the IHRA definition in assessing claims of antisemitic discrimination on campuses.

Schumer has also recently faced criticism over allegations in the House Committee on Education and the Workforce’s report on campus antisemitism, in which Schumer and his staff allegedly told Columbia President Minouche Shafik that “the universities[‘] political problems are really only among Republicans” and that Columbia leaders did not need to meet with Republican lawmakers.

Schumer’s spokesperson has said that report is not accurate and the New York senator has publicly condemned antisemitic incidents at Columbia on multiple occasions.