Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, at this crucial moment, the United States must support our democratic ally Ukraine. Stopping the Russian invasion is critically important, because right now democracy worldwide is under attack.

Helping Ukraine defeat Putin will make clear that the United States, our allies, and democracies everywhere will not tolerate the invasion of sovereign nations by bad actors.

We must also recognize the common thread between what is happening in Ukraine and what is happening in Israel. Iran is supporting dictators and terrorists who seek the destruction of democracy around the globe.

Iran funds and trains Hamas terrorists and sends weapons to Russian

forces as they inflict horrors upon civilians.

Let's be clear: If we allow Russia to win this war, the attacks on democratic nations will not stop there. The United States will undoubtedly be pulled into future global conflicts.

Now, more than ever, we must support our democratic allies in their fight against evil. Congress must recognize the urgency of this issue and send aid to our democratic allies immediately.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, the gentleman from Virginia, Ranking Member Scott, for recognizing me.

Mr. Speaker, as someone who has dedicated most of her career to combating anti-Semitism and as the co-chair of the House Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism, I know well that anti-Semitism has been on the rise in our country for years.

It was a growing problem before the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack, and sadly, immediately after that savage attack, anti-Semitism has skyrocketed, particularly on college campuses.

What we have seen happening on college campuses is outrageous, and too many college and university leaders have totally failed in their moral responsibility to condemn anti-Semitism. They have failed to keep Jewish students and faculty members safe. That is shameful.

I was appalled by the failure of the three college presidents to simply say yes. A call for the genocide of Jews is wrong, period, but I have no interest in meaningless resolutions that do nothing to address the underlying issue of anti-Semitism.

That is why my colleagues should join us in crafting serious bipartisan legislation that will make a real difference. We don't need throwaway resolutions. We need effective solutions.

If we are serious about fighting anti-Semitism, we need legislation to implement and codify the United States' National Strategy to Counter Anti-Semitism. We need to pass the President's request for $200 million in emergency supplemental funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program. We need to fully fund the Office of Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education, not cut that funding. We need to strengthen our Federal civil rights laws to punish all universities that fail to protect Jewish students.

Until we do that, nonbinding politically motivated resolutions are not worth the paper they are written on. When anti-Semitism rears its ugly head, it harms us all and it eats at the foundations of our democracy.

I have always called out anti-Semitism on the left and on the right, and I will continue to do so, but I don't want just words. I want this Congress to take action and pass implementing legislation.

Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, I was unable to be recorded on rollcall No. 707, rollcall No. 708, and rollcall No. 709. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall No. 707, ``yea'' on rollcall No. 708, and ``yea'' on rollcall No. 709.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my dear friend, Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz, for putting this evening together and for meeting with me and so many other of our Members with hostage families for week after week.

On October 7, we woke in horror to Hamas' brutal and despicable terrorist attacks, invading Israel, firing rockets at innocent civilians, going house to house, murdering babies, executing parents in front of their children, and massacring 250 young people at a music festival.

As if killing 1,200 people was not enough, Hamas took an estimated 240 innocent civilians hostage in Gaza, including elderly women, babies, young children, and Holocaust survivors.

Like many of my colleagues, I have spent the past 7 weeks meeting with the families of hostages, hostages including Keith Siegel from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and his wife Aviva, who were kidnapped from Kibbutz Kfar Aza.

I met with Keith's sister, Lucy, and his niece, Emily, who spoke so lovingly of their family members.

Keith and Aviva are the parents of four children and the proud grandparents of five grandchildren. Keith grew up in my home State of North Carolina. He moved to Israel as a young man, where he met Aviva, who was born in South Africa and had moved to Israel at the age of 8. Keith and Aviva have lived happily in Kibbutz Kfar Aza for 40 years.

On the morning of October 7, Keith and Aviva were having a quiet day at home when they were brutally attacked and abducted by Hamas terrorists, who drove them into Gaza in their own car.

After 51 days of grueling captivity, Aviva was finally released earlier this week as part of a temporary cease-fire. Keith is still being held hostage. I can't even imagine what Aviva has gone through or the agony the entire family is going through waiting for their beloved Keith to be freed from captivity.

I have met with other hostage families and learned about their loved ones. I realized that just like the stories of Holocaust survivors, each story about a hostage is unique. Each story is heartbreaking because each of these hostages has loving family members whose lives have been torn apart, who are living the agony of not knowing what has become of their loved ones: Are they okay? Are they healthy? Are they injured? Are they alive? Will they ever see them again?

I have heard stories that have brought me to tears, that haunt my dreams, and that should make all of us redouble our efforts to bring those hostages home. I have met with several of these families so often that I feel like they are my own extended family members.

Over the past few days, we have seen some of the hostages released and brought home to their families, and I thank President Biden and this administration, along with Israelis and our regional partners who have worked to ensure that the agreed-upon hostage exchanges took place, but there is still much more work to do.

There are still more than 130 people being held hostage, and we have only begun to learn about the terrible circumstances of their captivity. This has told us we have absolutely no time to waste.

Earlier this week, I was proud to help lead the debate on the House floor on a bipartisan resolution that we passed unanimously demanding the release of the hostages, but passing a resolution is not enough. We must do more.

Hamas has still not allowed the International Red Cross to visit the hostages. This is unacceptable. Our country and countries around the world must join together and demand the immediate release of all the remaining hostages: the children, the women, the men, the civilians, and the soldiers. We have no time to waste.

I look forward to rejoicing with the Siegel family when Keith is finally released, and I look forward to bringing all the hostages home.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H. Res. 793, calling on Hamas to immediately release hostages taken during the October 7 gruesome and savage attack on Israel. I am grateful for my dear friend and colleague from Michigan, Representative Haley Stevens, for introducing the resolution together with my friend, Representative French Hill.

Representative Stevens' extraordinary leadership on hostage and wrongful detention issues has given a voice to families of hostages and detainees and helped ensure that we never relent in our pursuit of bringing wrongfully detained Americans home.

The Hamas terror attack on October 7 resulted in the abduction of more than 240 innocent civilians and the heinous murder of more than 1,200 people.

In specifically targeting a civilian population, Hamas' abductions are among the greatest crimes against humanity. The sheer scale of the casualties and murder is the greatest attack against the Jewish people since the Holocaust.

Hamas has compounded the unimaginable human suffering it has caused through the use of its own people and the hostages as human shields, something we should never forget.

The hostages abducted by Hamas include civilians, soldiers, women, children, grandparents, and Holocaust survivors. Many are Israeli. Some are foreign or dual nationals, including American citizens.

Dozens of hostages have finally been released, thanks to the painstaking, difficult, and necessary negotiations assisted by the United States, including President Biden, and Qatar. I hope that, after this latest round of releases, we will continue to work to bring home all the remaining hostages.

This resolution calls attention to these abductions perpetrated by Hamas. Hamas specifically captured these innocent people so they could be used as bargaining chips and human shields while Hamas attempts to wipe Israel off the map.

Yet, while the situation is dire, there is hope. There are experienced public servants across the United States Government who have already helped secure the release of some Americans and dozens of other hostages from Hamas'

clutches. These dedicated officials in the White House, the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, the Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell, and elsewhere across our government continue their tireless work to bring all the remaining American hostages and all the hostages home.

This resolution is simple and straightforward. It condemns the horrific actions of Hamas, correctly notes that hostage taking is a violation of international humanitarian law, expresses solidarity with the victims, and demands Hamas release all hostages immediately.

It is incredibly important that we give it our full support to send a clear message about the need to bring them home. We must stand with the hostages and their families in Israel and all over the world until they come home.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues and, in particular, Representative Stevens for her tireless efforts on behalf of these Americans and their families and all Americans taken hostage or wrongfully detained overseas.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this measure, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from the great State of Michigan (Ms. Stevens).

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Stevens).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume for the purpose of closing.

Mr. Speaker, I have spent the past 6 weeks meeting with families of innocent civilians who were taken hostage by Hamas.

Just like the stories of Holocaust survivors, each story is unique. Each story is heartbreaking because each of these hostages has loving family members whose lives have been torn apart, who are living with the agony of not knowing what has become of their loved ones. Are they okay? Are they healthy? Are they injured? Are they alive? Will they ever see them again?

I have heard stories that have brought me to tears, that haunt my dreams, that should make all of us redouble our efforts to bring those hostages home.

Mr. Speaker, the past few days have seen significant breakthroughs in attempts to bring the hostages held by Hamas home to their families. Dozens of hostages, including a few Americans, have been released, especially over the past few days.

I applaud the efforts of this administration, Israel, Qatar, and others who have worked to ensure that the temporary cease-fire holds and that the agreed-upon hostages are released, but there is much more work to be done.

Even after these last rounds of releases, dozens of hostages still remain imprisoned by Hamas. This is unacceptable.

We cannot afford to go back to the status quo. It is imperative that the United States, Israel, and our other allies and partners continue to press forward with efforts to secure the release of all the remaining hostages, including Keith Siegel from my State of North Carolina, including Yarden Roman who made the excruciating decision to hand her daughter, Geffen, to her husband, Alon, because he could run faster to escape the terrorists and save their daughter.

Yarden herself is the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor whose great-grandparents made the same excruciating decision to sacrifice themselves for their daughter.

There are more than 150 more young people, mothers, fathers, civilians, soldiers, Americans, Israelis, Thai, and others. We must continue to work so that they can be brought home and reunited with their families.

I strongly support this resolution. Again, I thank Representative Stevens for all her work on this issue and on this resolution, and I urge all my colleagues to do the same.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H. Res. 888 introduced by my friends, Representatives Mike Lawler and Jared Moskowitz.

Mr. Speaker, on many occasions this House of Representatives has reaffirmed Israel's right to exist, and it is important that we do so again today. It is incomprehensible to me that after Hamas' horrific terrorist attack on October 7, the largest attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust, we are seeing a growing wave of anti-Semitism rear its ugly head at home and around the world.

Since Israel's independence in 1948 and its admission into the United Nations the following year, international law has mandated Israel's right to exist. Yet, as of this year, 28 of the 193 United Nation member states still do not recognize Israeli sovereignty.

The terrorist organization, Hamas, has declared that Israel has no right to exist and for decades has targeted Israel for destruction with suicide bombs, with missiles and rockets, and most recently, with gruesome and savage terror attacks targeting civilians.

The destruction of Israel and the killing of Jews is Hamas' sole focus. They have murdered babies, raped women, executed parents in front of their children, and massacred 260 young people at a music festival. They have taken 250 innocent civilians, including American citizens, hostage.

They are not working to help the Palestinian people who elected them. Indeed, the Palestinian people are shamelessly used and abused by Hamas as human shields.

As a proud, lifelong supporter of a two-state solution, I know that with Hamas in control of 2 million Palestinians in Gaza, real progress on a two-state solution cannot being achieved. Hamas has always only ever played spoiler. The same is true of Iran's other regional proxies, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and others, who also exist only to destabilize and destroy Israel, not to strive for a two-state solution.

There cannot be peace when a party to a conflict doesn't recognize the other parties' right to exist. With recognition comes peace and mutual prosperity, security, and innovation. That is why efforts to facilitate and expand the Abraham Accords are so historic and important. The Abraham Accords countries, along with Egypt and Jordan, all recognize this fact and are advancing their nations in the spirit of regional cooperation and peace.

Here at home, whether it is on public streets, on college campuses, or online, we have seen a deeply disturbing and aggressive increase and despicable call for Israel to cease existing as a Jewish State.

The phrase, ``from the river to the sea,'' a sickening call for the destruction of the State of Israel and the genocide of the Jewish people, has become a rallying cry for those hoping for Israel's destruction. Calling for total Palestinian control of all Israeli territory from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea is a call to eliminate the Jewish State of Israel.

This resolution states that denying Israel's right to exist is a form of anti-Semitism. I wholeheartedly agree with this statement. To be clear, it is not necessarily anti-Semitic to criticize the State of Israel or its leaders for particular policies. That is free speech, and no country is above criticism for its policies, including our own. It is absolutely anti-Semitic to treat Israel as a pariah based on the claim that Jews alone should be denied the right to define themselves as a people and to exercise any form of national self-determination.

This is the crucial difference. It is anti-Semitism, and we must totally reject it.

In 2015, former President Barack Obama stated the following in an interview: I think it would be a moral failing for me as President of the United

States, a moral failing for America, and a moral failing for the world if we did not protect Israel and stand up for its right to exist, because that would negate not just the history of the 20th century, it would negate the history of the past millennium.

Mr. Speaker, I totally agree with that statement. For thousands of years, Jews have suffered persecution and lack the safety and stability of a homeland. Today, the modern Jewish State of Israel thrives in the ancient Jewish Holy Land where it is a robust democracy and productive and treasured member of the international community of nations.

Israel has signed peace treaties with two of its most important neighbors and has come to the table for many rounds of peace negotiations with the Palestinians. Israel is a country that wants peace, whereas Hamas and its Iranian patron do not.

Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people and will always remain a place of refuge where Jews can be truly safe and control their own destiny. Israel is certainly worthy of the support of this House and the United States of America.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to support this resolution, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Moskowitz).

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman from Florida.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Amo), the newest member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume for the purpose of closing.

Mr. Speaker, the Jewish people have connections to the State of Israel that go back thousands of years. Indeed, the Jewish people are indigenous to that land.

Yes, Israel has a right to exist. This multicultural, multiethnic, multireligious nation, a nation of laws, a nation with free speech and free press, a nation of innovation, and a vibrant, thriving democracy, an incredible country, has much to teach the world and will continue to do so. This country, our only democratic ally in the Middle East, is here to stay.

This resolution puts the House of Representatives on record as affirming the State of Israel's right to exist. It recognizes that denying Israel's right to exist is a form of anti-Semitism. It rejects calls for Israel's destruction and the elimination of the only Jewish state and condemns the October 7 Hamas-led terrorist attack on the State of Israel and its people.

Mr. Speaker, I strongly support this resolution, and I urge all my colleagues to do the same. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. I rise in strong support of H. Res. 683, introduced by my colleague, Representative Monica De La Cruz.

I had the opportunity to support this resolution as it made its way through the House Foreign Affairs Committee earlier this month, and I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting its passage here.

Mr. Speaker, climate change has led to more prevalent and severe climate events across North America and has affected us all. Lack of rain, for example, has caused severe drought, impacting farming communities and businesses that provide critical crops and jobs. Rising temperatures have affected the volume and distribution of rainfall and snowfall over time. Without water, farmers have had to make difficult choices about whether to plant their crops, resulting in major losses all around.

In these challenging times, I recognize the importance of engaging constructively with our neighbors to resolve issues that may seem local but have broad global implications and downstream effects. One instance where we must improve our international cooperation concerns the share of water between the United States and Mexico from the Colorado and the Tijuana Rivers and of the Rio Grande.

Mr. Speaker, H. Res. 683 recognizes that, as farmers in south Texas experience greater water shortages, we must work with the Government of Mexico to ensure its deliveries of water to the U.S. are made more consistent and timely and encourages new commitments to be made for that purpose.

I am particularly impressed by the International Boundary and Water Commission's engagement this year to advance the goals of the 1944 treaty relating to the utilization of the waters of the Colorado and Tijuana Rivers and the Rio Grande.

The Commission's work to ensure that commitments made to distribute water are upheld in a timely manner and in the right quantities have not gone unnoticed. No doubt these changes in regular access to water will have a positive impact on those who grow the food and livestock we depend on.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting the dialogue and diplomacy necessary to confront this urgent issue.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to support this resolution, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume for the purpose of closing.

Mr. Speaker, this resolution recognizes that, as farmers in south Texas are suffering from water shortages, dialogue and diplomacy will be critical to ensuring that water deliveries from the Government of Mexico, per the 1944 treaty, are made in a timely and consistent manner.

H. Res. 683 supports the negotiations being undertaken to secure water deliveries on an annual basis that would allow farmers to have predictable quantities of water for their crops and their livestock.

Mr. Speaker, I strongly support this resolution and urge all of my colleagues to do the same.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, Representative Schneider, for yielding me time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this bipartisan House resolution that I helped introduce with the House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, Mike McCaul, and Representative Schneider and others to make clear that the United States will never tolerate Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Iran is the principle source of instability in the region. It is a major threat to our interests and remains the world's leading sponsor of terrorism, supporting terrorist groups like Hamas in their brutal quest to destroy our ally Israel.

On October 7 we witnessed the gruesome results of Iran's support for Hamas. This is the kind of terror that Iran facilitates.

An armed Iran with a nuclear weapon would represent an even greater, entirely unacceptable threat to Israel and the world.

For the past few years, Iran has flagrantly violated the terms of the nuclear deal, blown past restrictions, continued to enrich uranium to dangerous levels, bringing it closer than ever to being able to produce nuclear weapons.

That is why this resolution emphasizes that it is U.S. policy to prevent a nuclear armed Iran, as President Biden himself has made clear, and to support our partners and allies like Israel in the face of such an existential threat. Sending a clear message that Iran cannot acquire a nuclear weapon is about deterring Iran, not seeking confrontation or war with them.

Colleagues on both sides of the aisle should agree that it is absolutely in our interest to restrain Iran's nuclear ambitions, and it is in the interest of a more stable, secure, and peaceful region.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all my colleagues to vote in support of the resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to speak in support of H.R. 340, the Hamas International Financing Prevention Act, a bipartisan bill introduced by Representatives Brian Mast and Josh Gottheimer to impose sanctions on the terrorist group Hamas.

On October 7, we woke in horror to find Hamas' brutal and despicable terrorist attacks, firing rockets at innocent civilians, storming the Israeli border, invading Israel, going house to house, murdering babies, executing parents in front of their children, massacring 260 young people at a music festival. Hamas killed 31 U.S. citizens and more than 1,400 Israelis while taking hundreds of innocent people hostage in Gaza, including babies and toddlers.

Hamas terrorists are not militants. They are not freedom fighters. They are not a civil resistance movement. They are a brutal foreign terrorist organization which is dedicated to the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews.

It is no secret that this is their goal. It is plainly stated in Hamas' founding charter. It is also important to recognize that Hamas has no regard for the lives of innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza, the very people they rule over, who suffer under Hamas. Let there be no mistake. Hamas bears responsibility for their pain as well.

All countries around the world should join the U.S. in demanding Hamas immediately release all the hostages currently held in Gaza. I am grateful that the Biden administration has imposed additional sanctions on senior Hamas officials and their financial backers. We need to continue to bring pressure to bear on Hamas and cut off their flow of resources.

That is why this legislation would impose sanctions on foreign entities that provide material and financial support to Hamas and Islamic jihad, while also providing for important humanitarian exemptions.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues for their work on this bill, and I urge all my colleagues to join me in supporting it.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, Representative Brad Schneider, for yielding me time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this bipartisan resolution that I reintroduced with Congressman Brad Schneider and colleagues on both sides of the aisle.

This resolution, originally introduced by former Congressman Ted Deutch and passed by the House last Congress, urges the European Union to designate Hezbollah in its entirety as a terrorist organization.

Mr. Speaker, the terrorist group Hezbollah is a linchpin of Iran's axis of resistance and is responsible for thousands of civilian deaths in the Middle East and around the globe, including the 1983 Marine Corps barracks bombing in Beirut and the 1994 AMIA Jewish community center bombing in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Until 9/11, Hezbollah had killed more Americans than any other terrorist group. Today, it maintains an arsenal of 150,000 rockets aimed at Israel.

In recent weeks, Hezbollah has fired upon Israel, threatening to open up a second front in the war along Israel's northern border, risking a wider regional confrontation and putting civilians in Lebanon at risk.

Given these facts, it is incomprehensible that any EU member state can credibly assert any distinction between Hezbollah's so-called military and political wings.

The truth is, there is one unified Hezbollah, and it is dedicated to carrying out terrorist activities around the world. That is why this bipartisan resolution calls on our partners in the EU to take a stronger stand against worldwide terrorism by designating Hezbollah as a whole as a terrorist organization.

We must continue to keep pressure on Hezbollah, Hamas, and all other terrorist groups that threaten the United States and our ally Israel, and that undermine peace, security, and stability throughout the region and around the world.

Mr. Speaker, I urge support for this bipartisan measure.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, Representative Brad Schneider, for yielding me time.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to support H.R. 3266, the Peace and Tolerance in Palestinian Education Act, bipartisan legislation I cosponsored, introduced by Representatives Brad Sherman and Brian Mast.

Mr. Speaker, this bill is necessary because we continue to see the use of textbooks and other educational materials in schools run by the PA and UNRWA containing anti-Israel content which perpetuates anti- Semitism, victimhood, and martyrdom, erases Israel from the map, and even glorifies violence and terrorism.

Children in the West Bank and Gaza deserve the chance to learn without using textbooks that are biased, promote intolerance, and demonize or mischaracterize Israel.

That is why this bill would require the State Department to investigate, report to Congress, and make publicly available important information about the content of the curriculum used in these schools.

The PA and UNRWA have a responsibility to address and remove problematic content in textbooks that violates the U.N.'s own principles of neutrality and tolerance.

We know that no child is born to hate. They have to be carefully taught. Educational materials that teach them hate by demonizing Israel only make it harder to resolve the conflict and achieve lasting peace.

In closing, Mr. Speaker, I urge all my colleagues to support this important bipartisan bill that I am proud to cosponsor.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of this resolution. I thank my colleague, Representative Burgess Owens, for sponsoring this resolution condemning support for terrorism and anti-Semitism on college campuses.

Anti-Semitism is a persistent, shape-shifting hatred that is an affront to our values as Americans. It should be condemned by all. It has no place on college campuses and universities or in our society.

I am committed to countering anti-Semitism in all its forms as a co- chair of the House Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Anti-Semitism and as a member of the Education and the Workforce Committee.

Tragically, anti-Semitism is on the rise across the United States and around the world. We have witnessed a particularly disturbing increase in anti-Semitic incidents at colleges and universities. According to the Anti-Defamation League, anti-Semitic incidents on college and university campuses increased by 40 percent from 2021 to 2022.

Since the horrific terrorist attacks by Hamas against Israel on October 7, we have witnessed an even greater increase in incidents and threats targeting Jewish students across the country--by some accounts, a 400 percent increase.

Students at Cooper Union were barricaded inside a library building. Shocking anti-Israel messages were projected onto a building at George Washington University. Just yesterday, a Cornell University student was arrested and charged for posting horrifying threats online targeting Jewish students on campus, threatening to shoot up the kosher dining hall, and calling for Jewish students to be eliminated.

It is also deeply disturbing to witness student-led demonstrations and rallies excusing and glorifying the terrorism or expressing sympathy for foreign terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah, groups whose driving ideology is anti-Semitic and which are dedicated to the destruction of Israel.

College and university leaders have a moral responsibility to make clear that they reject hatred, violence, and anti-Semitism, to hold those responsible for these acts accountable, and to prevent a hostile and intimidating environment for Jewish students, faculty, and staff.

I am grateful for the Biden administration's commitment to fully enforce Federal civil rights law prohibiting anti-Semitic discrimination and to take steps, including those outlined in the ``U.S. National Strategy to Counter Anti-Semitism,'' to combat the rise of anti-Semitism in higher education.

Congress should also make clear that we condemn terrorism, anti- Semitism, and violence and that we remain committed to protecting all students.

Madam Speaker, colleges and universities are places where students learn from one another and where they decide who they want to become in life. We can respect and uphold Americans' free speech and First Amendment rights without tolerating discrimination and hate. No matter what your opinion is on foreign policy or any other issue, it does not excuse or give anyone a license to engage in hate against any group.

When anti-Semitism and bias against Jews take hold on campus, it deprives students of their equal right to an education and harms everyone in the campus community.

That is why I am proud to support this resolution condemning support for terrorism and anti-Semitism on campuses and calling for protections against hate targeting Jews, just as we should for all Americans of any background who are facing increased threats.

Madam Speaker, I encourage all of my colleagues to support this resolution, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I acknowledge that my colleague is standing against anti-Semitism and that he introduced a measure to require the teaching of the Holocaust. I also introduced an amendment at that same hearing. My amendment would have prohibited the banning by schools and school districts of books about the Holocaust because school districts across the country are banning books like ``The Diary of a Young Girl'' by Anne Frank and the award-winning graphic novel ``Maus'' because they found those books too disturbing.

This is exactly what we should be talking about in our hearings, that we should be teaching students the history of the Holocaust using award-winning books because these are the perfect vehicles for making sure that students understand what has happened when anti-Semitism has been allowed to go unchallenged.

I thank my colleague for raising this issue in today's setting and hope they will continue to support efforts to avoid the banning of books on the Holocaust.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume for the purpose of closing.

For the past 2 weeks, I have been inundated with phone calls, emails, and texts from frantic parents and terrified students who have experienced online hate, taunting from their fellow students, exposure to swastikas on their dorm walls and doors, chants of death to Israel and Jews, and seeing those words chalked on campus walkways. These students sat through anti-Israel and anti-Semitism rants by professors who were supposed to be teaching them, not spreading anti-Israel propaganda.

Rallies were held by students and others who are ignorant about the history of the Middle East and ignorant about the 2,000-year history of anti-Semitism.

Our education system is failing us, and we are seeing it come alive on our college campuses. We are seeing that failure at some of the most illustrious institutions in my State of North Carolina and at my own alma mater in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

We are seeing the failure and inability of university presidents and university chancellors--people who are able to take the simple step of condemning terrorism against Israel and of condemning the gruesome attack by Hamas on innocent Israeli civilians and the taking of hostages--to simply call out and condemn anti-Semitism.

They do this under the guise of free speech.

Madam Speaker, I am glad that Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle are committed to standing strong against terrorism, anti- Semitism, and all forms of hate on college campuses. This is critical.

This is an important and timely resolution that seeks to call out a deeply disturbing pattern of support for terrorism and anti-Semitism that we have been seeing on all too many college campuses in recent weeks.

I am appalled by the inability of our institutions of higher education to be able to stand up for what is right and to take on the initiative to use these incidents as a teaching opportunity. After all, what are our colleges and universities for if they are unable to use this opportunity to teach about what is right and what is accurate.

I ask all my colleagues to join me in voting in support of this resolution, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, 18 days ago, more than 1,000 Hamas terrorists invaded our Democratic ally Israel, and in the most gruesome, savage, and unimaginably barbaric manner attacked 22 Israeli towns, going house to house slaughtering families, raping girls, beheading babies, setting fire to homes where children were hiding in safe rooms, burning them alive, and taking more than 200 people of 40 different nationalities hostage, including taking infants and the elderly hostage.

They massacred more than 260 young people attending an outdoor peace concert. They perpetrated the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust, slaughtering more than 1,400 people, including 39 Americans.

In committing these horrific crimes against humanity, they have brought disaster to the very people they govern--the Palestinian people.

They hide their fighters among civilians. They place rocket launchers and weapons in schools, in hospitals, in mosques, and in residential buildings, compounding their acts of evil.

I was so proud that President Biden immediately expressed the full support of the United States for the State of Israel.

He traveled to Israel in a time of war to embrace the Israeli people, to show with his presence that the Jewish state has not only a right but a duty to defend itself against Hamas, a terrorist group that has in its charter as its foundational purpose to murder Jews and destroy the State of Israel.

Make no mistake: When they shout, ``from the river to the sea,'' they are calling for the total destruction of the

State of Israel and ridding the Middle East of all Jews.

Well, let me say: not on our watch. The United States will stand side by side with our Democratic ally Israel. I urge my colleagues to join me in voting in support of this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Bennett College, which I have the privilege of representing in Congress.

In 1873, Bennett got its start as a school for elementary and secondary students in the basement of Warnersville Methodist Episcopal Church.

Now, Bennett College, located in Greensboro, North Carolina, stands as one of only two all-women's HBCUs in the Nation.

In the 150 years since its founding, Bennett College and its alumni have made history. Bennett played a pivotal role in the civil rights movement in North Carolina. Before Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave his famous March on Washington speech, he traveled to Greensboro, North Carolina, in February 1958. There, he was met with an overflowing crowd of young women, the Bennett Belles, at the Annie Merner Pfeiffer Chapel on Bennett's campus.

This speech, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s first speech ever given in Greensboro, had a lasting impact on the entire Triad community.

Mr. Speaker, 2 years after his speech on Bennett's campus, Bennett Belles participated in the famous Woolworth counter sit-in, the demonstration that ignited a movement of sit-ins for racial equality across the South and across the country and changed the entire course of American history.

In the years since then, Bennett's alumni have continued to make history.

Bennett had the first Black woman president of a 4-year college in the United States, Dr. Willa B. Player.

Former Bennett College President Johnnetta Cole went on to lead the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African Art.

Maidie Ruth Gamble Norman was an early Hollywood film star in the 1930s.

Dr. Dorothy Brown was the first woman to practice general surgery in the South in the 1940s.

Carolyn Robertson Payton led the Peace Corps under President Jimmy Carter.

Marian Tasco was Pennsylvania's first Black county commissioner.

Many more Bennett Belles have broken down barriers and have been the first to accomplish amazing feats. Today, Bennett continues to educate young minds and produce changemakers.

Bennett has been an influential institution in our Nation's history, as well as a pillar of outstanding education in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Congratulations to the Bennett Belles on 150 years of excellence.

Madam Speaker, I was not recorded on rollcall No. 366. Had I been recorded, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall No. 366.