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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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