[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 181 (Thursday, November 2, 2023)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1043-E1044]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    CONDEMNING THE SUPPORT OF HAMAS, HEZBOLLAH, AND OTHER TERRORIST 
 ORGANIZATIONS AT INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION, WHICH MAY LEAD TO 
THE CREATION OF A HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT FOR JEWISH STUDENTS, FACULTY, AND 
                                 STAFF

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                     HON. ROBERT C. ``BOBBY'' SCOTT

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 1, 2023

  Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of the 
resolution offered by the gentleman from Utah, Mr. Owens. America's 
institutions of higher education should be welcoming learning 
environments for all students and faculty. I strongly denounce 
antisemitism: it has no place on our Nation's campuses.
  That said, the resolution does not completely paint an accurate 
picture of what took place on some of the campuses it mentions. For 
example, while the resolution describes the actions taken by a Stanford 
instructor, it does not report that the instructor was suspended by the 
University. Furthermore, the resolution fails to acknowledge that the 
Brandeis University Student Union, as the University described in a 
statement designed to correct the record, ``decided to strongly condemn 
Hamas, and it has communicated its stance to the Brandeis community, 
and the media more broadly.'' As a co-equal branch of the federal 
government, Congressional documents should be accurate and reflect the 
truth of the matters they assert. We must be especially careful when 
pointing out instances of antisemitism as my colleagues in the majority 
have reminded us before, accusations of racism (including antisemitism) 
are easily weaponized in our modern era.
  Congress must also be vigilant to ensure that college campuses remain 
places where freedom of speech and thought are maintained. I know this 
is an important issue to my colleagues in the majority as they have 
convened multiple hearings on free speech on campuses.
  As we denounce actions that create unsafe spaces for Jewish students 
on our Nation's campus, we must also recognize that while the First 
Amendment does not protect threats or fighting words, it does protect 
unpopular and abhorrent speech. It is in trying and tense political 
moments like this that it is easy for us to forget our truly American 
ideals with regard to free speech--debates on issues like this are 
simply outlawed in other Western democracies. I firmly believe the 
solution to bad speech is more speech. To that end, we should reject 
attempts to restrict student association or limit speech that may feel 
comforting but compromise the very freedoms that make America 
exceptional. I commend the American Civil Liberties Union for their 
open letter to College and University leaders asking them to reject 
efforts to restrict constitutionally protected speech on campuses.
  The inaccuracies in the resolution, and concerns about free speech 
notwithstanding, we realize that instances of antisemitism on college 
campuses have risen precipitously in the past few weeks. And while this 
recent rise is attributable to events in Israel and Gaza, the fact is 
antisemitic acts on college campuses have been on the rise for the last 
six years.
  As such, H. Res. 798 is a missed opportunity, to recognize that 
issues of racial hostility on college campuses are broader and older 
than the events it cites. Over six years ago, after an uptick in racial 
incidents on college campuses, I wrote a letter to Chairwoman Foxx 
requesting a hearing ``to examine how institutions of higher education 
are meeting their responsibility under title VI of the Civil Rights Act 
of 1964. Title VI prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, 
or national origin in `any program or activity receiving Federal 
financial assistance.'1A'' In that letter, I contextualized attempts by 
the Trump Administration to investigate the use of race in admissions, 
use that had recently been affirmed in the Supreme Court case Fisher v. 
University of Texas-Austin (Fisher II).
  While some of us may have forgotten, 2017 saw a marked increase in 
racially hostile events on campuses. In a 2017 report describing the 
uptick in racially hostile events on campus, the Anti-Defamation League
  (ADL) said ``White supremacists, emboldened by the 2016 elections and 
the current political climate, are currently engaged in an 
unprecedented outreach effort to attract and recruit students on 
American college campuses.'' Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the ADL, was 
quoted in that same report saying ``[w]hile there have been recruitment 
efforts in the past, never have we seen antisemites and white 
supremacists so focused on outreach to students on campus.'' Some of 
the most infamous events in that year included:
  the hanging of nooses with bananas in them on the campus of American 
University the day after the election of the school's first black 
student body president, Ms. Taylor Dumpson;
  the racially charged murder of Richard Collins, III, a black ROTC 
student at Bowie State University, during a visit to the University of 
Maryland, College Park; and
  the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in which white 
supremacists marched unmasked through the grounds of the University of 
Virginia, carrying torches and chanting racist and Anti-Semitic phrases 
such as ``Jews will not replace us!'' and ``Blood and Soil!'', direct 
allusions to Anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and Nazi sentiments from 
the 1930s. Later that weekend, counter-protestor Heather Heyer was 
murdered, and 35 others injured by an attacker in his car as they 
protested the Anti-Semitic and racist presence in Charlottesville.
  My request for a hearing on this issue was ignored, and instead, I 
convened, in partnership with House Judiciary then-Ranking Member John 
Conyers, an issue forum on September 8, 2017 entitled, ``Affirmative 
Action, Inclusion, and Racial Climate on America's Campuses.'' In my 
prepared remarks for that forum, I said:

       The presence of some students of color at some 
     predominantly white institutions is questioned, even though 
     those same schools afford advantages to legacy students, 
     families of wealthy donors, and students who have benefited 
     from high-quality education because of the inequities in the 
     educational system. When confronted with racist behavior on 
     campus, students are often told that the First Amendment 
     protects such behavior.

  Since that initial request in 2017, I welcome the recognition by the 
majority that colleges have a duty to provide healthy learning 
environments for all students. This is a point Democrats have made 
consistently in the wake of issues surrounding racial hostility and 
free speech on college campuses. We have done so while having to hear 
past and current colleagues mock students as ``snowflakes'' and assert 
the problem when it comes to free speech on campus is that students are 
not

[[Page E1044]]

being allowed to ``freely express their beliefs without the fear of 
retribution from fellow students, faculty, and administrators.'' I am 
glad that the majority has finally woken up to the realization that 
free speech issues cannot be separated from demographic changes on 
campus, the legacy of structural racism and the recent explosion in 
hate speech on campus. I only wish that the majority would realize that 
the same protections that apply to Jewish students must be enforced for 
other students as well.
  Under the majority's leadership in the House, we have had multiple 
hearings and markups where the mere existence of trans students has 
been questioned. Research shows that due to stigma, trans youth 
experience depression and suicidal ideation at disproportionate rates 
compared to their peers. Recent data from the CDC show that transgender 
youth are 10 times more likely to experience homelessness. Transgender 
students are also more likely to feel unsafe at school, to experience 
bullying and other forms of violence including being threatened with a 
weapon at school, and social isolation. Experiences of a hostile school 
climate, potentially compounded by an unstable living situation, lead 
to disproportionate drop out rates for these students. Title IX of the 
Education Amendments Act of 1972, which prohibits discrimination on the 
basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, was modeled after 
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; in the same way schools have 
to provide safe learning environments to all students irrespective of 
race, they must also do so irrespective of sexual orientation or gender 
identity. Democrats have consistently raised this issue only for it to 
fall on deaf ears with our majority colleagues.
  Our committee has held multiple hearings and markups where the idea 
of having professionals tasked with making sure our colleges and 
universities are diverse, equitable, and inclusive (DEI) has been 
ridiculed. We have attempted to explain that institutions of higher 
education that were not designed to serve diverse student populations 
are facing specific challenges related to the changing demographics of 
their student bodies, and having DEI personnel on hand to address these 
issues can help schools foster the healthy learning environment all 
students need. To suggest that efforts aimed at inclusion are somehow 
responsible for the proliferation of AntiSemitic acts on college 
campuses, as the sponsor of this resolution suggested in closing debate 
on the resolution, defies belief.
  Under Title VI, institutions of higher education have a duty to 
provide safe learning environments for all students. What's true for 
Jewish students now was just as true for Black and Brown students six 
years ago. This resolution could recognize the universality of the 
charge in our civil rights laws and call for an end to hostility 
towards all students on campus based on race, religion, sexual 
orientation and gender identity, but it fails to do so, and as such is 
a missed opportunity.
  And while some might claim that antisemitic behavior is what is on 
the rise now, the Federal Bureau of Investigations Director Christopher 
Wray in testimony to Congress just this week highlighted that events in 
the Middle East are resulting in increases in threats against both 
Jewish Americans and Muslim Americans--explicitly referencing the 
murder of a six-year old boy for no other reason than he was Muslim, an 
incident the FBI is currently investigating as a federal hate crime.
  As I did in 2017, I continue to support efforts to ensure that all 
schools are safe and healthy learning environments for students. For 
that reason, I support H. Res. 798. Hate has no place on college 
campuses, and speech that has crossed the line into threats and 
hostility directed at Jewish students, or any other group of students, 
must be exposed and denounced. I firmly believe that colleges and 
universities can live up to their Title VI obligations to all students, 
provide forums for students to exercise their rights of free speech and 
free expression, and be the cauldrons of thought that produce the 
critical thinkers our country needs to solve the challenges of today 
and the future.

                          ____________________