In September of 2020, the U.S. House of Representatives voted on an amendment to offer protection to those individuals who are disparately impacted by institutions who receive federal funding. The amendment to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (H.R. 2574) was debated on the floor of the House and just prior to the vote language was added via a maneuver which allows the minority opposition party to exercise a last minute motion to recommit that is intended to elevate the legislation that is about to pass. In this case, the minority party exercised a motion to recommit that explicitly includes Jewish people in this amendment by offering them protection from disparate impact of antisemitism as it relates to a shared heritage with Israel.
There were a number of fumbles, fakes and punts that make the discussion and votes confusing to say the least. To add insult to injury, the bloggers and mainstream media seemed to get the story more wrong than right and effectively politicized an already reluctantly political football in spite of the Jewish community's explicit requests to congressional leaders not to do so. The Jewish vote amongst the House democrats were split on the motion to recommit and no one seems to know why that happened. Those congressional offices who were contacted declined to comment and all but one didn't return any calls or emails. In order to both set the record straight and let congress know we are interested in this topic we will be reporting on this and other similarly disturbing occurrences that are happening on campuses, in the media and in government.