Jacky Rosen

Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla., and Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., are renewing an effort to combat antisemitism, with Politico reporting Tuesday that the senators plan to introduce legislation targeting antisemitism on college campuses and online while increasing security funding for Jewish communities.

The effort follows legislation Lankford and Rosen first introduced in 2024 that did not advance in Congress, though the senators have continued pushing antisemitism-related initiatives through the Senate Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism.

"Those are three big issues that get talked about the most, so we tried to pull those together into one bill," Lankford said. "We are trying to do this bipartisan, bicameral."

Rosen said the legislation was "personal" and had "been over a year in the making."

he proposed legislation would require the Education Department to designate an antisemitism coordinator and establish regulations for colleges receiving federal funding.

It would also increase nonprofit security grant funding to $1 billion and require additional disclosures from online platforms regarding antisemitic content moderation.

The renewed effort mirrors major parts of the pair's 2024 Countering Antisemitism Act, which sought to establish a White House national coordinator to counter antisemitism, create an interagency task force, require annual federal threat assessments and strengthen oversight of campus discrimination.

"In America, we have the right to have a faith and to live that faith. No American should live in fear that they will be attacked simply because of their religious views," Lankford said when introducing the 2024 legislation.

"As the number of acts of antisemitism continues to rise, Jewish communities across the U.S. deserve action to protect this basic freedom," he added.

Rosen said that after the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel there had been "countless disturbing stories of Jewish families accosted and assaulted on streets, Jewish businesses and places of worship vandalized and desecrated, and Jewish students threatened at colleges and universities."

Jewish advocacy groups have pointed to statistics showing many Jewish Americans increasingly fear becoming targets of harassment or violence.

American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch said in the organization's 2023 State of Antisemitism in America report that antisemitism became a "five-alarm emergency" after Oct. 7.

The report found that 63% of American Jews said the status of Jews in the United States was less secure than a year earlier, while 46% reported changing their behavior out of fear of antisemitism.

AJC's 2025 report described it as "one of the most violent years against American Jews in recent history," citing an arson attack at the Pennsylvania governor's residence and killings connected to Jewish community events.

"No one in America should have to change their behavior because of what they believe, but that's how most Jews are living their lives," Deutch said.