Sens. John Curtis (R-UT) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV) introduced legislation this week directing the federal government to assess Hezbollah’s ability to conduct terrorist activities in Latin America and determine ways to counter its influence in the region.

The No Hezbollah in Our Hemisphere Act requires the secretary of state, in coordination with the director of national intelligence, attorney general, homeland security secretary and treasury secretary, to determine whether any country or region in Latin America qualifies as a terrorist sanctuary under U.S. law and sanction entities that collaborate with Hezbollah. 

The bipartisan bill would implement visa bans and travel restrictions on foreign government officials and financial actors found to be materially supporting Hezbollah. Any current visas issued to individuals found to be in support of the terrorist organization would be immediately revoked, unless they were to take verifiable actions to begin combating Hezbollah’s influence. The legislation would also allow the president to waive these restrictions for law enforcement purposes or to remain in compliance with U.S. global obligations.

“Hezbollah is directly responsible for the murder of hundreds of Americans. For too long, this Iranian-backed terrorist group has used Latin America as a safe haven for illicit financing, recruitment, and other criminal activities — fueling drug trafficking at our southern border and posing significant threats to our national security,” Sen. Curtis said in a statement, noting that the legislation “directs the United States to take action on Hezbollah’s alarming presence in Latin America to keep us and our allies, including Israel, safe from their terrorist ambitions.”

“Iran-backed Hezbollah is a terrorist organization that has operated in the Western Hemisphere for decades to raise funds for its destabilizing activities around the globe,” Sen. Rosen said. “This is a threat to U.S. national security and cannot be tolerated. That’s why I’m proud to introduce this bipartisan bill to make clear that we will not accept countries turning a blind eye to Hezbollah’s harmful actions.”

Tyler Stapleton, director of government relations at FDD Action, the sister organization of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said in a statement that, “Despite Hezbollah’s military leadership being thoroughly degraded, the terror group maintains a global illicit finance network that could help the organization reconstitute itself, especially with the backing of terrorist sponsors like Iran. This is acutely felt in Latin America, where Hezbollah’s infrastructure continues to operate and threaten the United States and our allies.”

“Few countries in the region have designated Hezbollah a terrorist organization or placed significant restrictions on its operations, and some countries even openly provide it with material support. The No Hezbollah in Our Hemisphere Act seeks to address the permissive environment for Hezbollah in the region through a comprehensive assessment of Latin American countries to determine whether they meet the criteria of a terrorist sanctuary under U.S. law,” Stapleton continued.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is facing mounting pressure from Jewish leaders and Democratic colleagues who have privately voiced frustrations with the continued delay in moving to advance a major bill aimed at addressing a recent surge in antisemitic activity on college campuses.

Schumer, who has been outspoken against rising antisemitism in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, had endorsed prior versions of the legislation, called the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which first passed the Senate in 2016 under unanimous consent. 

But after an initial effort to unanimously fast-track the bill failed last month in the Senate, Schumer has since delayed for weeks in bringing the bill up for a floor vote, even as it is expected to pass comfortably with bipartisan support and has won backing from a large number of Jewish groups.

In a brief interview with Jewish Insider on Thursday afternoon, Schumer, who has rarely addressed the matter publicly, stressed that he is now “looking at every single option to try and get strong, bipartisan legislation passed,” but he did not share a timeline for approving the bill.

“The crusade against antisemitism is in my bones, has been for my whole life,” he said, describing “the goals and aspirations of” the bill as “so important in this fight and to the future.”

Still, the holdup has angered supporters of the bill who allege that Schumer — the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the country — is now slow-walking a floor vote because he is fearful that it will highlight divisions within his caucus while garnering a larger share of Republican backers.

“He is avoiding this at all costs,” said a person familiar with the matter who spoke with JI on the condition of anonymity to address a sensitive topic. “The reason why he hates this is because Schumer knows there’s going to be 40 to 45 Republicans who are going to vote for this bill, but there’s only going to be 30 Democrats.”

The bill would enshrine a definition of antisemitism used by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance into federal law and direct the Department of Education to consider the definition — which, among other things, identifies some criticism of Israel as antisemitic — in evaluating complaints of anti-Jewish discrimination on college campuses. That policy has been in place since 2019 under an executive order signed by former President Donald Trump.

While the legislation passed the House early last month by a wide margin, it has also drawn opposition from members of both parties, including some progressive and right-wing critics who have raised varying objections to the bill on free speech grounds.

Despite some resistance to the bill in the Senate, however, two of the most vulnerable Democrats up for reelection in November —  Sens. Bob Casey (D-PA) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV) — are each eager for Schumer to call a vote and are urging him to act, according to sources familiar with their outreach. 

A Senate aide confirmed to JI on Tuesday that Casey, who reintroduced the legislation with Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) in April, is pushing Schumer to move forward.

“The horrific rise in reported incidents of antisemitism is a clarion call for Congress to step up and protect students on campuses across the nation,” Casey said in a statement shared with JI on Thursday. “The need for my Antisemitism Awareness Act has never been greater and I am working with Leader Schumer on all legislative options to pass it as quickly as possible.”

For her part, Rosen, a Jewish Democrat who is the lead sponsor of a separate antisemitism bill that also remains stalled in the Senate, has grown especially frustrated with Schumer’s delay as the summer congressional recess draws closer, said one well-placed source familiar with her thinking.

In a statement to JI, however, Rosen expressed confidence in Schumer’s approach to the bill, which she called “an important step in addressing rising campus antisemitism.”

“At a time when antisemitism has skyrocketed across the United States in the aftermath of the October 7 terrorist attack in Israel, particularly on college campuses, I’ve been working with Senator Schumer to advance the bipartisan Antisemitism Awareness Act,” she said, adding that the majority leader “is looking at every path forward to get this done.”

Meanwhile, several Jewish leaders who met with Schumer last month to lobby on behalf of the bill indicated in a follow-up letter sent to his office last Friday that their patience has been wearing thin.

In the letter, obtained by JI and written by top officials at a range of major Jewish and pro-Israel groups, the Jewish leaders requested an update from Schumer and “once again” exhorted him to greenlight a vote, emphasizing that in their initial meeting he had “committed to us that there would be movement on the bill within a short timeframe.”

Describing the legislation as “a high priority of the American Jewish community,” the Jewish leaders called on Schumer to move with alacrity before the fall semester begins on campuses, citing “a dramatic increase of antisemitic activity” on college campuses amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

“We must ensure that, when students arrive on campus in the fall, we have adequately equipped the agencies tasked with protecting their civil rights,” the signatories elaborated in their letter to Schumer. “The Antisemitism Awareness Act is a key piece of this effort. In light of this unfolding crisis, we urge you to bring the bill to the Senate floor prior to the beginning of the 2024-25 academic year.”

The letter was signed by William Daroff of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations; Ted Deutch of the American Jewish Committee; Eric Fingerhut of the Jewish Federations of North America; Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League; Howard Kohr of AIPAC; Eric Goldstein of UJA-Federation of New York; and Nathan Diament, executive director of public policy for the Orthodox Union.

A source familiar with the situation previously told JI that, during the meeting with Jewish leaders, Schumer had indicated that he is still trying to resolve objections to the bill, which is likely to be a difficult prospect given entrenched opposition from some lawmakers on both sides of the aisle who say the legislation limits free speech. The Jewish leaders urged Schumer to bring the bill to a vote.

In comments to JI on Thursday, representatives of some of the Jewish groups that met with Schumer reiterated their support for the bill. “We are eager for the AAA to be voted on by the Senate,” Diament said in a statement, using an acronym for the bill. “It passed the House by an overwhelming margin and we are confident the same will happen in the Senate when brought for a vote.”

Karen Paikin Barall, vice president of government relations at JFNA, echoed that view, calling the Antisemitism Awareness Act “a critical piece of legislation” and voicing “hope it will come to a vote in the Senate as soon as possible. We are confident that it will pass.”

The ADL has been “working closely with” Schumer and his team, said Dan Granot, the group’s director of government relations, “and as we have discussed multiple times, now is the time for Congress to step up and meet this moment of rising antisemitism.”

Julie Fishman Rayman, the managing director of policy and political affairs at the AJC, called Schumer “a committed ally of the American Jewish community” and said he “knows that it is in the best interest of the community to get a bill that defines and counters antisemitism passed by the Senate before the end of this congressional session.”

On Thursday, some Jewish leaders also came to his defense.

Sheila Katz, the CEO of the National Council of Jewish Women, who attended the meeting with Schumer last month, said in an interview with JI that “passing legislation to combat antisemitism is a top priority” for the Senate leader. “Once again,” she said, “he has mobilized to ensure critical legislation to combat antisemitism moves forward. He is doing this in a thoughtful and strategic way by actively working with multiple stakeholders and Jewish organizations.”

But while NCJW supports the IHRA definition as “an educational tool,” as the group states on its website, it does “not recommend this be codified into law or used to prohibit freedom of speech in any way.” Katz clarified to JI that NCJW “has been focused on advocating for” another bill that Schumer has co-sponsored called the Countering Antisemitism Act, which was introduced in April by Rosen and Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), but noted that “we do not oppose the AAA.”

Amy Spitalnick, the CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, said that Schumer’s “commitment to addressing the crisis of antisemitism is crystal clear.” 

Her group, she told JI, is also working with the senator’s team on “a legislative path forward” for such bills as the Countering Antisemitism Act, which seeks to codify and expand on the Biden administration’s national strategy to combat antisemitism and is endorsed by a broad swath of the Jewish community. 

The JCPA, however, has “not taken a position” on the Antisemitism Awareness Act, according to Spitalnick. 

The White House declined to comment directly on the bill, noting instead that the Countering Antisemitism Act “is aligned with the administration’s national strategy to counter antisemitism in important ways.” President Joe Biden “welcomes congressional action in this fight,” Andrew Bates, a White House spokesperson, told JI on Thursday.  

In a sign of brewing frustration with Schumer across the Jewish denominational spectrum, a sizable coalition of Orthodox rabbis issued a joint statement last week accusing the majority leader of “obstructing” a handful of bills concerning the Jewish community, including the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which now has 31 co-sponsors almost evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans.

With the bill continuing to languish in the upper chamber, some critics are skeptical of Schumer’s commitment to advancing what they see as urgently needed legislation to counter a rise in antisemitism that has riven college campuses in recent months.

The majority leader has given some notable floor remarks where he has condemned antisemitism, including a landmark speech last November in which he argued that anti-Israel animus “in the wake of Oct. 7 is all too often crossing into brazen and widespread antisemitism, the likes of which we haven’t seen for generations in this country.”

More recently, Schumer took to the Senate floor earlier this month to speak out against a widely denounced pro-Hamas demonstration at an exhibit in downtown Manhattan honoring the victims of the Nova music festival massacre. 

But Schumer’s more cautious approach to legislation addressing antisemitism has recently drawn scrutiny, particularly as he has also faced backlash from some Jewish and pro-Israel groups over his sharply worded speech in March calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu an obstacle to peace and advocating for new elections to replace the Israeli leader.

“By all accounts, the success or failure of the Antisemitism Awareness Act now depends almost entirely on the decision of one man: Majority Leader Schumer,” Kenneth Marcus, the founder and president of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, said in an email to JI this week.

Marcus, who relied on the IHRA definition while overseeing anti-Jewish discrimination cases as the head of the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights in the Trump administration, said that Schumer “need only call the bill to a vote, and it will probably pass.”

“The problem is that a roll call vote could expose fissures within both parties, with far greater problems among the Democrats,” he suggested. 

Even as Schumer vowed to explore all available avenues to pass the bill, he emphasized in his comments to JI that “beating back antisemitism also involves public education and fervent voices to say things like I said in my own speech on antisemitism and so many times afterwards, as recently as this week.”

“As I continue to meet with other senators, Jewish groups and other stakeholders,” Schumer added, “my North Star is always going to be the Jewish values I hold and the history we as Jews have learned.”

Responding to the deluge of new investigations into antisemitism on college campuses since Oct. 7 and the subsequent war in Gaza, Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and James Lankford (R-OK) wrote to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona on Monday to call on him to appoint a dedicated official to oversee the Department of Education’s efforts to fight antisemitism.

The lawmakers also said that the department must hold schools “accountable using every

available tool, up to and including withholding federal funding” when they fail to protect Jewish students as “too many” have.

“Far more work needs to be done to hold schools accountable for their failure to protect Jewish students on college campuses, including by swiftly resolving pending investigations related to antisemitism,” they continued.

Rosen and Lankford said Cardona should “designate a senior official with the responsibility of overseeing the Department’s efforts to counter antisemitic discrimination in higher education,” in consultation with the Senate and House antisemitism task forces. Rosen and Lankford lead the Senate task force.

They said the official’s responsibilities should include informing students about how they can file complaints, communicating with schools about their duties to protect students who are perceived to be Jewish or Israeli from discrimination and making policy recommendations to Cardona.

A similar structure is part of the Countering Antisemitism Act, a bill led in the Senate by Rosen and Lankford, which would also implement various other mechanisms to combat antisemitism across the federal government. It’s not clear when or if that bill will move forward given political headwinds. 

The senators also asked Cardona to provide a report and briefing to Congress on the status of the department’s investigations into antisemitism, with a focus on the number of complaints that have been pending for over six months, why such complaints are still unresolved and when the department expects to resolve them.

Cardona has said that the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights has been severely overstretched since Oct. 7, given the rise in complaints of antisemitism and other forms of discrimination, with investigators handling 50 cases each.

LOS ANGELES — As the House Education and Workforce Committee prepares to hold its third major hearing on campus antisemitism later this month, the corresponding Senate committee — chaired by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) — has yet to hold any special hearings about rising antisemitism at American universities. 

Sens. James Lankford (R-OK) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV), the co-chairs of the Senate Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism, have been asking Sanders to call a hearing on the matter. As of last week, they hadn’t heard back from the Vermont progressive.

But in a conversation with Jewish Insider on Monday at the Milken Institute Global Conference, Lankford said that Sanders has now weighed in on the matter, telling Lankford that he intends to call a hearing with a focus that is “broader and not just on antisemitism. He wants to really focus on increasing Islamophobia, and a very different direction on it.”  

“I have no issue with trying to be able to say no one should be discriminated against, but we want to  be really clear what’s actually happening,” Lankford added. He and Rosen have sought stronger Senate action on campus antisemitism for two or three years, he said, so the issue is deeper than just the current spike.

“No one really took it seriously at that point. They are now. People do see it now,” said Lankford. “This is a bigger issue than what we thought was happening on campus. So we’re trying to just be really clear that this is not a knee jerk to October the seventh. This has grown for a while and we feel it’s important to be able to set that context.” 

Lankford declined to say if he expects Sanders to come around to his view on the issue. But he pointed out that even a Senate hearing would not fix the problem of inaction by university administrators. 

“Ultimately, I’m trying to figure out, how do we actually get administrations — how do we get people to engage, to enforce their own code of conduct on their own campus, just to be consistent? That’s doable. Many campuses have done that,” said Lankford. “We’re going to protect free speech, but we’re not going to allow people to be intimidated on their own campus.” (A Sanders spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.) 

Lankford called for the Senate to take up the Antisemitism Awareness Act that passed the House with bipartisan support next week, but he said he has not yet spoken to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) about when the Senate might consider the legislation. The bill’s adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism drew some pushback from both the right — among Christians who falsely claimed that the bill would criminalize statements that the Jews are responsible for Jesus’s death — and the left, where anti-Israel voices worry that the law would impinge on their ability to criticize Israel. 

“It starts this whole big stir that the IHRA definition is suddenly going to outlaw the Bible and the New Testament is going to cause people to be arrested,” Lankford said. “The IHRA definition in the Antisemitism Awareness Act doesn’t take away free speech. It notifies a campus if you’re discriminating in this way, then that’s discrimination, the same as it would be for a Black student or Hispanic students or whatever it may be. That’s discrimination. Your federal funding would be at risk, as it would be or any other type of discrimination on your campus. So just don’t discriminate.”

Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans penned a letter to Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) on Thursday to request that he hold a hearing on how the uptick in antisemitism on college campuses is violating the civil rights of Jewish students. 

The letter was led by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), the top Republican on the committee, and signed by every Republican who serves on the panel, including Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), John Cornyn (R-TX), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Josh Hawley (R-MO), John Kennedy (R-LA), and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). They urged Durbin, who chairs the committee, to convene a hearing “on the civil rights violations of Jewish students” and “the proliferation of terrorist ideology — two issues that fall squarely within this Committee’s purview.”

“With this current state of inaction, it is incumbent upon this Committee to shed light on these civil rights violations,” the group wrote. “This Committee owes it to Jewish students, and all students who attend universities with modest hope of having a safe learning environment, to examine these civil rights violations.”

“Our committee should examine why more is not being done to protect the civil rights of innocent students across America,” they added. “We must also examine the threat to national security posed by the proliferation of radical Islamist ideology in the academy. These pressing issues demand our immediate attention.”

A spokesperson for Durbin did not immediately respond to JI’s request for comment on the letter, which came the same day as a missive from Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) requesting a similar hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. 

Cassidy, the top Republican on the Senate HELP Committee, sent a letter to Sanders on Thursday urging him to convene a hearing in his capacity as committee chairman on the uptick in antisemitism on college campuses. 

Cassidy’s letter, first obtained by Jewish Insider, marks the second time in six months that the Louisiana senator has written to Sanders requesting that he allow for a full committee hearing “on ensuring safe learning environments for Jewish students, as required by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.” Cassidy released a statement last week re-upping his call for a hearing, though he told JI that effort got no response.

“It is our duty to ensure federal officials are doing everything in their power to uphold the law and ensure students are not excluded from participation, denied the benefits of, or subject to discrimination at school based on race, color, or national origin,” Cassidy wrote to Sanders. “In the six months since my last letter requesting a hearing, the situation has only gotten worse.”

While Republicans have generally been more vocal about their concerns on the issue of antisemitism on college campuses, there have been bipartisan calls for action in the upper chamber. 

Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and James Lankford (R-OK) have also asked Sanders to hold a hearing on antisemitism on college campuses in his capacity as HELP chairman. Similar to Cassidy, they have also not heard back from the Vermont senator. 

Separately, Sens. Rick Scott (R-FL) and Roger Marshall (R-KS) requested a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser’s response to protests at The George Washington University’s campus this week. 

The duo penned a letter on Thursday to Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), who chairs the committee, requesting he bring in Bowser and D.C. Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith to testify on their respective responses to university requests to bring DCMP onto campus to clear out an anti-Israel encampment, requests Bowser denied. 

On the House side, where Republicans are in the majority, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) launched a chamber-wide effort to address all elements of the campus unrest. 

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), who chairs the Education and Workforce Committee, revealed that in addition to her ongoing probes, she will have the presidents of three other schools testify next month on their responses to protests and instances of antisemitism on their campuses. The presidents of the University of California, Los Angeles; the University of Michigan; and Yale University will be brought in to testify before Foxx’s committee on May 23. 

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, noted that her panel “oversees agencies that dole out massive amounts of taxpayer funded research grants… We will be increasing our oversight of institutions that have received public funding and cracking down on those who are in violation of the Civil Rights Act.”

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) said that his panel was reaching out to the State Department and Homeland Security Department to find out “how many students on a visa have engaged in the radical activity we’ve seen now day after day on college campuses.”