Recently, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) sent a letter to the leadership of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, urging it to increase funding for the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) within the U.S. Department of Education. 

The aim is to address the national rise in antisemitic and Islamophobic sentiment and action over the past several years. 

The letter comes following a disturbing rise in antisemitic incidents following Hamas’ attack on October 7. From October 7-23, 2023, incidents of antisemitic harassment, vandalism and assault are reported to have increased by 388 percent over the same period the year prior. 

The FY 2024 funding bill proposed by House Republicans sets the budget for OCR at $105 million, a 15 percent reduction from FY 2023 funding levels.

An edited letter follows. To read the full letter, visit www.bit.ly/3R8eX2s.

Dear Majority Leader Schumer, Minority Leader McConnell, Chair Baldwin, and Ranking Member Capito:

As discussions around Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 appropriations continue, I request that you prioritize an increase in funding for the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) within the Department of Education. 

A national increase in antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents following Hamas’ horrific terrorist attack on October 7, 2023, has underscored the urgent need to address the overall national rise in discriminatory sentiment and action over the past several years. 

As chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee on Children and Families, I am especially concerned about how this harassment and discrimination is affecting our nation’s students in schools and on college campuses.

The work of OCR is essential to the federal government’s response to antisemitism and Islamophobia and ensuring that students across the nation can learn free from harassment or discrimination. Through the enforcement of… federal civil rights laws, OCR ensures all students—regardless of race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability—are able to access an education. 

OCR enforcement of Title VI obligations extends to a prohibition on discrimination or harassment based on a student’s actual or perceived “shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics” and “citizenship or residency in a country with a dominant religion or distinct religious identity.” These protections are necessary and important to assuring Jewish and Muslim students that they will have safe educational access... Fostering safe, inclusive educational environments in which students can learn and grow preemptively prevents the perpetuation of discriminatory harm. 

In FY 2022, OCR received 18,804 complaints, the highest in the agency’s history. This rise in reported discrimination and harassment in our schools is mirrored off campus as well. The Federal Bureau of Investigation reported 11,643 hate crime incidents in 2022, an increase from 2021, with the top biases motivating these crimes being anti-Black, antisemitic, and anti-gay sentiments. 

OCR has endeavored to expediently investigate complaints, despite a dramatic reduction in full time equivalent (FTE) staff; in FY 1981 OCR had an FTE staff of approximately 1,100 compared to only 546 FTE staff in FY 2022. 

Efficiently allocating OCR’s resources will pose an even greater challenge following October 7. OCR announced several investigations following complaints of alleged antisemitic and Islamophobic harassment. From October 7-23, incidents of antisemitic harassment, vandalism and assault are reported to have increased by 388 percent over the same period the year prior. Disturbingly, many of these reports have come from students on college campuses who describe witnessing antisemitic graffiti and vandalism and being subject to virtual harassment and violent threats. 

While this is a dangerous surge, it is not new. It is a spike that is built on the foundation of a five-year upswing in mounting antisemitism.

Insufficient funding should not be a barrier to enforcing vital civil rights laws. Unfortunately, the FY 2024 funding bill proposed by Republicans in the House of Representatives sets the budget for OCR at $105 million, a 25 percent reduction from FY 2023 funding levels. 

I appreciate that at a time when the Senate Committee on Appropriations is tasked with weighing difficult funding decisions, the committee chose to at least maintain the prior year’s funding for OCR. However, this surge in hate demands an equivalent increase in resources to ensure that OCR has sufficient capacity to conduct swift, thorough investigations and proactively work with schools to establish policies that will prevent discrimination.

In both chambers of Congress, my colleagues have been vocal about their concern for the safety and well-being of our nation’s students amid a rise in antisemitism. The United States Congress has a responsibility to pair moral leadership with substantive action. Adequately funding the agency tasked with ensuring all students can safely and freely access an education is essential at this moment in history and should be an action we can all collectively support. Thank you for your consideration of my request and this serious funding need.

Sincerely,

Sen. Bob Casey

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D) is the senior senator from Pennsylvania. He chairs the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee on Children and Families.