on shaky ground Antisemitism Awareness Act’s future in question after committee postpones vote One amendment led by Sen. Bernie Sanders and backed by Rand Paul specifically protects the right to oppose the ‘devastation of Gaza’ Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee chairman Bill Cassidy (R-LA) (L) during a hearing with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on September 24, 2024 in Washington, DC. By Emily Jacobs Marc Rod April 30, 2025 SHARE Senators on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee postponed a final vote on advancing the Antisemitism Awareness Act after approving four amendments that could jeopardize GOP support for the bill and leave its future passage once again in question. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), the committee’s chair and a major proponent of the legislation, told Jewish Insider after the meeting that he needed to postpone the vote because Republicans could not return to the committee room quickly enough to vote for it, with just minutes remaining before a two-hour cut-off to the meeting. Democrats refused requests to waive the two-hour limit. “I couldn’t get my people back. And Democrats have limited debate until noon as an obvious tactic to defeat the bill,” Cassidy said. “They don’t care if Jewish students are harassed on college campuses. And so that is a procedural way in which, if you limit the two hours and we can’t get our votes back, then we can’t have the vote.” Cassidy, who opposed all of the approved amendments other than a largely cosmetic one he introduced, said that they were “problematic” and that he would have to survey other committee members to determine whether they would still support the bill. He vowed in a statement after the hearing that he would continue working to pass the bipartisan legislation. The approved amendments included one by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) stating that it is not antisemitic to use free speech rights to oppose the “devastation of Gaza,” and laying out a series of Sanders’ specific objections to the war and criticisms of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. All Democrats and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) voted in favor. An amendment led by Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) would oppose the revocations of visas, detentions and deportations of students and faculty based on “protected conduct under the First Amendment.” All Democrats and Paul voted in favor. A third, also led by Sanders, states that the legislation protects rights to distribute written material on campus or online; to carry out protests in adherence to schools’ time, place and manner restrictions; and to engage in “any speech that does not include true threats or incitement of violence, including such speech as communicated through guest speakers, materials used in a classroom or online, or classroom discussions or debates.” All Democrats, Paul and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) voted in favor. A fourth, by Sanders, stated that no entity of the federal government can enforce a policy that would “compel” an educational institution to “violate the rights of a student, faculty, or staff member under the First Amendment.” All Democrats, as well as Paul and Collins, voted in favor. The amendments are likely to make some Republicans who had previously supported the legislation wary of doing so. A final committee vote was already expected to be tight, with only two Democrats expected to support the bill and one Republican expected to oppose it, meaning that sufficient support may no longer exist to move the bill forward. “So that it’s clear for the people that are watching, supporting these amendments is an effort to kill this bill, which protects Jewish students from antisemitic acts,” Cassidy said during the meeting. “The bill includes protections for free speech. So let’s not be naive as to what’s taking place here.” Critics of the legislation, including Democrats and Paul, repeatedly argued that the legislation — and particularly the examples affiliated with the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism that the bill utilizes — would grant the federal government new powers and allow restrictions on First Amendment rights. “I just want to reiterate that one can say whatever they want to. That’s protected by the constitution,” Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), the longtime lead sponsor of the Antisemitism Awareness Act, responded. “The examples point to why the conduct that follows the speech is antisemitic. You can say any one of the examples and not have any challenges as long as your next act isn’t [discriminatory] conduct or harassment.” The legislation codifies an existing executive order in place under both the Trump and Biden administrations and does not confer any new authorities beyond that. Cassidy repeatedly accused Democrats of attempting to drag out debate to kill the bill, noting there was insufficient time to process all of the dozens of amendments offered in the two-hour timespan allotted by Senate rules. He appealed to Democratic colleagues for unanimous consent to waive the two-hour limit, but Sanders refused. Sanders and other Democrats argued that debate should resume another day, but Cassidy replied that the same delay tactics would only continue. “This could be death of a thousand cuts, frankly, a strategy by which to defeat the ability to consider final passage,” Cassidy said, later adding, “Lets not be disingenuous, these bills have been out here for a long time, and we’ve had plenty of time in the public spectrum to discuss this. We actually had a committee hearing before on discussing the antisemitism on college campuses in which fulsome debate was therefore allowed time.” Cassidy added that while he was not “disparaging or implying the motivations” of his colleagues, he was “saying this could be used to defeat a bill not on the substance of the bill, but by a process, and this chairman will not allow that.” Sanders told reporters after the meeting that opposition to the legislation reflected “opposition and concern about this country moving toward an authoritarian society. You are seeing an understanding that speaking out and opposing [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s horrific war in Gaza, which has killed over 50,000 people, is not antisemitic, and that there is growing concern about what the Trump administration is doing in attacking our constitutional due process.” He said that the Trump administration’s actions, including detentions of college students with student visas, had helped build opposition to the bill. The meeting also featured a series of speeches from Paul as he made the case that the IHRA definition’s contemporary examples would violate free speech. He argued, at various points, that it is racist to describe Israel as a Jewish state, that Jewish comedians routinely employ stereotypes about Jewish people, that comparisons between modern political figures or governments and the Nazis are mundane and not problematic, that the Department of Education would send armed police to college campuses to suppress speech and that some, if not all, Jews held responsibility for the death of Jesus. Asked about the level of opposition from Paul, Cassidy told reporters he’s “always a little idiosyncratic” but pushed back forcefully against Paul’s claims that the amendment would alter the First Amendment, noting that the legislation includes language specifically protecting First Amendment rights. The committee also postponed a vote on the Cassidy-led Protecting Students on Campus Act. AIPAC, which supports the AAA, lamented the outcome of the HELP markup. “The original Antisemitism Awareness Act is a key step in the effort to fight antisemitism and anti-Israel hatred on campus. Unfortunately, Sen. Sanders and Paul sought to weaken the bill and brought in issues unrelated to the fight against antisemitism,” spokesperson Marshall Wittmann said in a statement. “We are deeply disappointed the committee was unable to pass the bill, which passed in the House last year with overwhelming bipartisan support (320-91). We will continue to fight for the bill’s passage.” Wittmann added, “The amended version has significantly undermined the purpose of the legislation.” The Orthodox Union described Sanders’ Israel-related amendment and Markey’s amendment as “poison pill[s].” “Let’s be clear: these amendments are a disgrace. They don’t just weaken the Antisemitism Awareness Act — they mock it,” Nathan Diament, the executive director of public policy for the OU, said. “Some lawmakers in Washington are abdicating their responsibility to ensure that this country’s civil rights laws are used to protect American Jews as much as they protect any other community targeted with discrimination and harassment. Many of the senators who voted for these poisonous amendments represent large Jewish communities. Their constituents will remember this day.” Karen Barall, the Vice President of government relations at the Jewish Federations of North America said she was “deeply disappointed by the outcome” of the meeting. “The IHRA working definition — with its comprehensive, carefully crafted examples — remains the most widely adopted and respected standard, fully compatible with free speech protections,” Barall said. “The Antisemitism Awareness Act is essential, and we will continue to work tirelessly to ensure it becomes law.” An Anti-Defamation League spokesperson said that ADL is “committed to pursuing every possible avenue to advance this important bill and will continue working with our bipartisan partners in Congress to see it signed into law.”