The House Committee on Education and the Workforce is holding Tuesday’s hearing on antisemitism in higher education. It is in charge of overseeing the Department of Education, including its role in enforcing anti-discrimination laws.
It also supervises how billions of dollars in federal funding that goes to educational institutions is being used.
Because of that oversight role, the committee can demand that the leaders of colleges and universities testify before them at hearings, and politicians can dangle the risk of being cut off from federal funding if educational leaders do not comply. Republicans have said they are willing to take such action if they find a university’s policies and responses to behavior on campuses to be unacceptable.
Since taking control of the House in 2023, Republicans have used the committee’s hearings on antisemitism to criticize academia and progressive college campus culture — for decades among the chief targets of conservatives — and to capitalize politically on the debate over Israel’s war in Gaza.
Pointing to footage of pro-Palestinian demonstrations and encampments, Republicans have also hoped to use the issue, which has divided Democrats, as a wedge to sway voters.
Representative Tim Walberg of Michigan, the committee’s Republican chairman, said in a statement before Tuesday’s hearing that the panel was “building on its promise to protect Jewish students and faculty while many university leaders refuse to hold agitators of this bigotry, hatred, and discrimination accountable.”
Democrats on the committee have argued that Republicans are selectively focused on some hate speech, and that they tolerate antisemitism in their own party while using it as a political weapon against others.
“This is our ninth hearing on antisemitism in 18 months,” Representative Robert C. Scott of Virginia, the top Democrat on the committee, said during Tuesday’s hearing. “We’ve not held a single hearing addressing racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia or other challenges affecting other student groups on American college campuses.”
Michael Gold covers Congress for The Times, with a focus on immigration policy and congressional oversight.
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