GOP senator wants immediate vote to bar federal tax dollars for colleges that fail to condemn antisemitism

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., is demanding an immediate vote on a bill he is co-sponsoring that would rescind funding for colleges that do not condemn antisemitism on campus. 

Scott told Fox News Digital in an interview that the call for a vote on the bill — drafted by Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., in October — comes after Harvard refused to take action against university President Claudine Gay after her testimony before the House Education and the Workforce Committee hearing this month.

During the hearing, Gay said that calls on campus for the genocide of Jews require "context" before they would violate the school's code of conduct.

"I don't think you ought to be going to schools that don't want to stop antisemitism, and we'll call it for what it is," Rick Scott said. "And so, I think that I think that we ought to outlaw this."

Scott added, "This is absolute hatred, and our schools should not be allowing this."

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The bill, known as the Stop Antisemitism on College Campuses Act, would "prohibit institutions of higher education that authorize Anti-Semitic events on campus from participating in the student loan and grant programs," according to the bill text. It was introduced in the upper chamber last month.

Other co-sponsors include Republican Sens. Marsha Blackburn, Katie Britt, John Cornyn, Joni Ernst, Cindy Hyde-Smith, James Lankford and Ted Budd.

This isn't the first attempt by Republican lawmakers to call out reported antisemitism on college campuses. Last month, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., tried to pass a resolution with unanimous support that would condemn antisemitism on college campuses. Democrat Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., blocked the resolution from advancing.

Van Hollen argued that most of the pro-Palestine protests across U.S. campuses were not violent, "as repugnant as some of them were in terms of the words." He said the resolution would "smear all of the students who engage in these protests," potentially violating First Amendment rights.

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Also last month, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., introduced the Ending Subsidies for Pro-Terrorist Activities on Campus Act, which would designate terrorist-related activity as grounds for disqualification from federal student aid.

Rubio cited several student groups on college campuses that have shown support for Hamas, the Islamist terrorist group, after its attack on Israel.

Since the Oct. 7 massacre carried out by Hamas, Jewish students nationwide have experienced a surge in incidents like vandalism, arson and harassment.