Ted Lieu Spearheads Bipartisan Letter From Members of Congress Calling on Education Dept. to End Delays of Investigating Antisemitism Complaints

Representative Ted Lieu (D-CA) headlined a bipartisan letter of nearly 40 members of Congress calling on the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights (OCR) to end their delays on investigating complaints of antisemitism on college campuses.

The February 4 letter, which was also signed by Representatives Brad Sherman (D-CA), Ted Deutch (D-FL) and Don Bacon (R-IL), noted that according to a recent FBI report, 60% of all 2020 religious hate crimes in the United States targeted Jews. The letter also pointed to an August 2021 report from Alums for Campus Fairness finding that 75% of students and alumni view antisemitism on campus as "a very serious problem," almost 70% avoided places on campus because of fears of antisemitism and nearly 50% said that antisemitism has gotten worse on campus. "This demonstrates that Jewish students need assistance and protection from the growing threat of Antisemitism on American campuses," the letter stated.

The letter went on to list three calls of action to OCR, the first being that OCR should "provide technical assistance" to college campuses about antisemitism. The second argued that "there appears to be a significant delay" in OCR completing their investigations on antisemitism complaints falling under the purview of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which bars discrimination on campuses. "Therefore, for each Title VI complaint that has been pending in OCR for more than 180 days, we request that you provide the following information: (a) the status of the case; (b) the reason(s) it has not been resolved; and (c) an estimated time frame for its resolution," the letter stated.

The final call was for OCR to end their delays on codifying the executive order that then-President Donald Trump signed at the end of 2019 stating that Title VI covers antisemitism on college campuses. The Biden administration initially announced that the codification would occur in January 2022, and then pushed it back to December 2022. "These delays in processing Title VI complaints are delaying justice and potentially allowing discrimination to persist on campuses throughout the country," the letter concluded.

A spokesperson at OCR confirmed to the Journal that they have received the letter and will be responding to members of Congress directly.

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted, "Bravo @tedlieu for your leadership on this bipartisan effort to turn the 2019 EO on #antisemtism into law and ensure that [the Department of Education] truly commits to combating it on college campuses."

StandWithUs issued a statement thanking Lieu and the other 38 congressional members for the letter to OCR. "This initiative sends a clear message that our elected officials are concerned about rising antisemitism in the educational context, and are being vigilant to ensure that federal taxpayer dollars are not used to support entities that fail in their responsibilities to adequately remedy antisemitic environments," the pro-Israel educational group said. "It is our sincere hope that the DOE will respond to this letter expeditiously and that this effort will lead to improved response time to these complaints. This, in turn, will lead to increased protection for Jewish and non-Jewish students who care about Israel, and Israeli faculty, staff and students on campuses nationwide."

Kenneth L. Marcus, Founder and Chairman of The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and the former Assistant U.S. Secretary of Education for Civil Rights, told the Journal in a phone interview that "we're delighted that Ted Lieu is taking leadership on this. It was great to see his letter and the fact that so many members of Congress joined him in expressing concern about what Jewish students are facing on campus as well as an insistence that the Biden administration do something about it."

Marcus went on to explain that he advocated for the Trump administration to codify the executive order before the Biden administration took over in order to give it "greater durability" in the face of "vicissitudes of changing administrations." "This didn't get done by the end of the Trump administration, so it landed in the Biden administration's lap," he said. "I wasn't sure whether the Biden team would want to codify the executive order. Generally speaking, new administrations don't always want to build on the work of their predecessors and of course the Biden administration has expressed considerable disagreement with what was done by President Trump." Marcus added he was "really pleased" that the Biden administration indicated it would codify the executive order, but said that the "good news was somewhat tarnished when the current administration announced another delay in the much-needed regulation dealing with Jewish students." He posited that the delays may simply be due to limited resources hindering the process of codifying new regulations. "I'd like to think it doesn't reflect something worse."

In order to codify a regulation, it must be formally proposed through the federal register, provide time for public comment, and be approved by the Department of Justice, Office of Management and Budget and the Small Business Administration, Marcus said.

Marcus argued that it is imperative for the Biden administration to communicate with school administrators about the issues of antisemitism on campus, which he said they haven't really been doing. "The administrators need to hear that, because otherwise they're going to think that it's not a priority for the regulators and investigators," Marcus said. "College administrators are responsive to the people who regulate them, and so it's really important—even during this period when the regulation is pending––for the Education Department, the Justice Department and perhaps even the White House, to send clear signals that Jewish students can't be forgotten in the rush to deal with other issues.

"That's what so important about the congressional letter," he added. "It signals to the Biden administration that OCR needs to address antisemitism and that can have the effect of signaling to college administrators and public schools that they too need to deal with problems that Jewish students are now facing."