Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced that he is opening a housewide investigation into antisemitism on college campuses at a Tuesday press conference.
The investigation, which Johnson called a "House-wide crackdown on antisemitism," will include several House committees — including the Energy and Commerce; Oversight; Judiciary; Ways and Means; and Science, Space, and Technology committees. The investigation is an expansion of several ongoing investigations into universities' — including Penn's — handling of antisemitism on their campuses.
Two House committees — the House Committee on Education and the Workforce and the Committee on Ways and Means — have ongoing investigations into antisemitism on Penn's campus. The education committee's investigation was opened in December 2023 shortly after former Penn President Liz Magill testified before the committee. Penn began submitting documents for the committee’s investigation back in February.
A Committee on Education and the Workforce aide told The Daily Pennsylvanian that their investigation was going to continue, despite the housewide expansion. Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), the committee's chairperson, announced at the Tuesday press conference that the presidents of Yale University, the University of California at Los Angeles, and the University of Michigan would testify at a May 23 hearing.
Foxx thanked Johnson for expanding her committee's investigation at the Tuesday press conference.
"As Republican leaders, we have a clear message for mealy-mouthed, spineless college leaders: Congress will not tolerate your dereliction of your duty to your Jewish students," Foxx said. "American universities are officially put on notice that we have come to take our universities back."
Foxx also criticized the ongoing pro-Palestinian encampments at universities across the United States.
"No stone must go unturned while buildings are being unfaced, campus greens are being captured, or graduations are being ruined," she said. "College is not a park for play-acting juveniles or a battleground for radical activists."
The aide added that, while other House committees will now be analyzing antisemitism on college campuses through their own perspectives, the education committee's investigation will not be altered. They added that the housewide investigation will now be building on the work already done by their committee.
Johnson spoke of the importance of Jewish student safety on their respective campuses at the press conference.
“We will not allow antisemitism to thrive on campus, and we will hold these universities accountable for their failure to protect Jewish students on campus,” he said.
The House-wide investigation comes as the Gaza Solidarity Encampment on Penn's College Green enters its seventh day. Throughout the week, counterprotests and reports of antisemitism have occurred at the encampment.
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