House puts HHS on notice to ensure universities receiving federal funding are free of 'antisemitic behavior'

FIRST ON FOX: House members are taking steps to ensure that universities receiving federal funds are complying with civil rights laws amid a House-wide effort to crack down on antisemitism on college campuses.

The Committee on Energy and Commerce and the Committee on Education and the Workforce sent a joint letter to the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra on Wednesday asking whether there have been any complaints of "unacceptable antisemitic behavior" from educational institutions receiving federal grants.

HHS awards federal funding to universities through National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants, which require that institutions receiving funding are free of discriminatory harassment, according to the NIH Grants Policy Statement.

"These concerns stem from the unacceptable antisemitic behavior witnessed across college campuses – including encampments, calls for violence, and severe interruption to the learning and research environments," the letter, obtained first by Fox News Digital, reads.

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Anti-Israel demonstrators gather at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Oct. 14, 2023. (Joseph Prezioso/Getty Images)

The letter notes that the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) does provide guidance on what is or is not allowed on campus, as well as how people can be protected by federal civil rights laws, but demands further action should be taken.

"Merely issuing guidance does not demonstrate that HHS OCR is taking active steps to ensure that universities or institutions are complying with federal civil rights laws, specifically as it pertains to antisemitism," the lawmakers wrote. "This is particularly concerning when universities that receive hundreds of millions of dollars a year in funding from HHS – such as Columbia University and the University of California, Los Angeles, among others listed in our letters issued on antisemitism concerns – are under active investigation by the U.S. Department of Education OCR for possible violations of Title VI."

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The lawmakers are requesting HHS provide a list of all misconduct allegations and all documents of communication at NIH-funded institutions relating to alleged antisemitic incidents from fiscal year 2023 to present by Oct. 2, 2024.

"When a doctor takes the Hippocratic Oath, he or she pledges to do no harm and to treat all patients with respect. Unfortunately, it seems that there are HHS-funded medical institutions – including Columbia – that aren’t living up to that standard as they allow antisemitism to run rampant," Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "The goal of our committees is to ensure that no patient, professional, or student is subject to discrimination, and certainly not on the taxpayer’s dime."

Anti-Israel demonstrators protesting the Israel-Hamas war at the University of Wisconsin on April 29, 2024, in Madison, Wisconsin. (Getty Images)

"HHS has received the letter and will respond directly to the committee. The Department and its operating divisions are committed to ensuring that HHS-funded institutions are free from harassment and discrimination, including the abhorrent rise of antisemitism in the United States," a spokesperson for HHS told Fox News Digital in a statement.

The committees sent a similar letter, obtained by Fox, to Columbia University regarding whether the university is "maintaining a safe environment for all members" as a recipient of funding through HHS grants.

Columbia University reportedly received $611,173,605 in NIH grants in fiscal year 2024, according to HHS' public page on NIH funding.

The letter, addressed to interim President Katrina Armstrong, comes as part of an ongoing investigation into the university after anti-Israel protests broke out on the Ivy League campus during the spring semester.

Police officers set up fences at the scene of the anti-Israel protest at Columbia University. (Yuki Iwamura/AP Photo)

In their letter, the lawmakers requested that Columbia provide any and all complaints of a "hostile environment based on antisemitic discrimination, harassment, or safety concerns" received by the university, as well as how they were addressed.

Columbia University did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.

"We've been seeing health organizations, practices, schools, and associations take radical political positions whose only practical effect is to exclude Jews, as well as more blatant efforts to ostracize Jewish members of our community," Evan Bernstein, VP of community relations for Jewish Federations of North America, said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "We're hearing more and more concerns about this from our Federation communities across America, so we decided it was time to come to Washington to sound the alarm."

Aubrie Spady is a Writer for Fox News Digital.