00:00The committee will be in order. I'd like to remind the audience that there is no audience participation in the hearing.
00:06All are welcome to
00:08spectate, but to follow the rules of decorum
00:11here in the hearing room.
00:15I'd like to thank our witnesses for being here today and
00:19I would, without objection, the chair is authorized to declare a recess at any time.
00:23We welcome everyone to today's hearing on anti-semitism on college campuses, and I will now recognize myself
00:30for an opening statement.
00:33I would like to thank our witnesses for being here today
00:35since Hamas's brutal attack on our friend and ally, Israel.
00:41On October 7th, we have witnessed a disturbing spike in
00:45anti-semitism and
00:47anti-semitic violence across our own country.
00:50This rampant anti-semitism is perhaps most prevalent on American college campuses,
00:57often funded with billions in taxpayer dollars.
01:01Let's be clear, much of what we are seeing transpire on college campuses is not First Amendment protected speech.
01:08We are seeing pro-Hamas protesters commit vandalism,
01:12destroy university property,
01:14set up large encampments, and even in some instances carry out acts of violence.
01:20At the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill,
01:24protesters defaced a campus building hours before graduation, covering the university steps in red paint.
01:30At Yale University, a Jewish student was surrounded by a mob of protesters and assaulted by a pro-Palestinian demonstrator.
01:36He used a Palestinian flag to jab her in the eye.
01:41At Columbia University, protesters barricaded themselves in Hamilton Hall, breaking windows and furniture and preventing other students from accessing
01:48the building, and I would note that Columbia canceled its main
01:52commencement ceremony.
01:54I would point out the young man that was asked if he was a Zionist at UCLA and then prohibited
01:59from moving to another part of the campus and in a building,
02:04simply for expressing his view.
02:07Unconscionable. In fact, at the height of the protests on Columbia University's campus,
02:12one Columbia employee, an Orthodox rabbi, urged Jewish students to avoid campus,
02:18suggesting it was no longer safe to remain on university grounds in the face of ongoing protests. Imagine that.
02:24In the United States of America,
02:26Jewish students were being told to avoid campus.
02:32And it is not just anti-Semitism on college campuses, it is also blatant anti-Americanism.
02:38The University of Pennsylvania Ben Franklin statue was vandalized with the words,
02:42Glory to the Martyrs, Intifada until Victory.
02:45At George Washington University, the statue of George Washington was spray-painted with the words,
02:51Genocidal Warmonger University.
02:54At the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, protesters replaced the American flag with the Palestinian flag.
03:02Unfortunately, the leadership of far too many of these universities has refused to respond with moral clarity as to what is happening.
03:08Instead, they've opted to cancel graduation ceremonies and in-person classes to avoid further disruptive demonstrations.
03:16The colleges that are failing to rein in these violent protests are actively trampling their Jewish students' civil rights.
03:23Keep in mind, these colleges receive billions in funding and subsidies from the federal government.
03:28The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that President Biden's student debt cancellation,
03:34which constitutes a free handout to universities just as much as the borrower, could cost taxpayers up to $1.4 trillion.
03:43These colleges cannot have it both ways.
03:45They cannot rake in billions in federal dollars in subsidizing students to attend their universities while refusing to protect
03:52their Jewish students as they hide behind a false
03:55First Amendment argument.
03:57Congress has a duty to ensure that these federally funded entities are protecting students and upholding their rights.
04:02Thankfully, there are a few universities that have demonstrated strong leadership.
04:06University of Florida's President Ben Sasse made it clear that while students have a right to free speech,
04:11they do not have a right to take over an entire university, barricade themselves in campus buildings, and disrupt students' commencement.
04:18He rightfully stated,
04:19I want all of our students to feel safe.
04:22But more important than the subjective feeling, I want our students to be safe.
04:28And that is what is critically important here.
04:31In my home state, the University of Texas, President Jay Hartzell rightfully refused to let protesters set up an encampment
04:38and disrupt campus operations.
04:41You might ask, with Jewish students' rights under attack by students, agitators, and DEI bureaucrats,
04:47where is the Department of Justice and its crown jewel, the Civil Rights Division? Where is Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clark?
04:54Instead of taking meaningful action to uphold Jewish students' rights or going to the Columbia campus like Speaker Mike Johnson did, the former chair of this subcommittee,
05:02to condemn the lawlessness, on Monday,
05:05Clark delivered Columbia Law School's commencement remarks,
05:11making no significant mention of the surge of anti-Semitic action on campus, and in fact, lumping it into a
05:17long train of items in a speech.
05:19Imagine that. Didn't even bring it up in any significance, after Columbia had basically been sacked in protest.
05:27All while the Civil Rights Division, by the way, is actively trampling on the rights of pro-life Americans to peacefully protest by prosecuting them under the FACE Act.
05:34One young woman, a progressive activist, received a sentence of 57 months just this week.
05:40All while we haven't heard a word about what, if anything, her division is doing.
05:44All while we haven't heard a word about what, if anything, her division intends to do about this anti-Semitic movement among secular liberals on campuses across this country.
05:58But beyond civil rights, Congress must also examine how we should use our power of the purse in Congress
06:04to shut off the flow of taxpayer dollars that are going to universities to fuel this radical ideology.
06:10We are allowing billions, I think $5 billion alone at FY23, that went to Ivy League institutions.
06:16Harvard is sitting on a $50 billion endowment.
06:19$50 billion endowment, most of which is tax-free.
06:25Penn, $20 billion endowment.
06:28Yet we continue to have taxpayer dollars flow to these universities while they are treating our Jewish brothers and sisters
06:35as we have seen unfold before our very eyes in recent weeks.
06:40The secular left wants to admonish us not to foment culture wars.
06:46The best way to do that
06:47is for these radical progressive Democrats that infest college campuses and leech off of the public dole and the public debt and the fat cat
06:55donors that fuel the endowments.
06:57Not to do just that, not to start the culture wars by attacking our Jewish brothers and sisters.
07:04I look forward to hearing from today's witnesses about their experiences with antisemitism on college campuses
07:09and how we can ensure the safety, security, and equal protection of rights. I now recognize the ranking
