Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this bill to ensure that American efforts to fight the scourge of anti-Semitism are as strong as possible.

In December, the European Union released the results of a survey of over 16,500 European Jews. The results of this survey are, frankly, disturbing.

In its report, the EU wrote that anti-Semitism pervades everyday life. It also stated that anti-Semitism undermines Jews' feelings of safety and security and that anti-Semitic harassment is so common that it becomes normalized.

Europe is not alone in seeing a resurgence of anti-Semitism. Textbooks across the Middle East teach children to hate Jews. Malaysia's Prime Minister has repeated offensive, anti-Semitic statements. Here in the United States, we were devastated by the attack on a Pittsburgh synagogue in October. No region or country is immune from this hatred.

In 2004, the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act was passed into law, establishing a Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism. This position was created to combat this threat worldwide through bilateral relationships and international organizations such as the European Union and the United Nations. Fifteen years later, we need to modernize the way our government is set up to fight this hatred.

This bipartisan bill, which has been previously introduced in the House and passed in the House, requires the President to appoint a Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism. The bill also elevates the Special Envoy position to the rank of Ambassador and ensures direct access to the Secretary of State. It is finally time for the stature of this position to reflect the level of work that must be done.

Unfortunately, a Special Envoy has yet to be nominated under this administration, and I strongly urge the President to appoint a qualified candidate as soon as possible.

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Mr. McCAUL. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

In closing, I thank the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith) for his hard work to ensure that anti-Semitism remains at the top of our country's foreign policy agenda. I, too, echo my colleagues' on the other side of the aisle plea to this administration in a bipartisan way to appoint a Special Envoy.

If I can just conclude by saying that I am the son of a World War II veteran. My father was a bombardier on a B-17. He was part of the D-day air campaign. He bombed the Nazis. We saw the horrors of Nazi Germany. I have been to Auschwitz to see the horrors of the gas chambers and what the Nazis perpetrated against the Jewish people. We thought it was stamped out then. We thought it was over. And yet it is not. It is hard to believe that so many years later, anti-Semitism and neo-Nazis still exist in this world.

It is my sincere hope, with this Special Envoy we can truly make a difference--the Greatest Generation fought against it--and that this scourge will be eliminated entirely from the planet.

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