The House was pretty busy this week considering that they recessed early to allow members to attend the funeral of former Rep. Donald Payne Jr. (D-NJ10).

There were votes on a number of substantive bills, many of which passed by large margins.

• H.R. 1767: To amend title 38, United States Code, to provide that educational assistance paid under Department of Veterans Affairs educational assistance programs...not be charged to the veteran passed 406-6
• H.R. 3738: Veterans Economic Opportunity and Transition Administration Act passed 403-10
• H.R. 6093: Weather Act Reauthorization Act of 2023 passed 394-19
• H.R. 4877: Abandoned Well Remediation Research and Development Act passed 333-75
• H.R. 4824: Carbon Sequestration Collaboration Act passed 364-44
• H.R. 529: Extending Limits of U.S. Customs Waters Act passed 402-6
• H.R. 4755: Privacy Enhancing Technology Research Act passed 354-36
• H.R. 4866: Fire Weather Development Act of 2023 passed 341-48

There were much closer votes on a few other bills

• H.R. 6285: Alaska’s Right to Produce Act of 2023 passed 214-199
• H.R. 3195: Superior National Forest Restoration Act passed 212-203
• H.R. 764: Trust the Science Act, which would remove gray wolves from the Endangered Species list, passed 209-205
• H.R. 615: Protecting Access for Hunters and Anglers Act of 2023, which would prohibit the government from banning lead ammunition on federal lands, passed 214-201
• H.R. 3397: WEST Act of 2023, which would limit regulations on landscape health, passed 212-202

This Week's Rarity

This Congress has seen some highly unusual events, like the majority party refusing to vote for its own "rule" (aka to bring a bill to the floor for debate and vote) and in one case, the minority party helping to pass a rule. This week's rarity is the majority party helping the minority party with a "motion to recommit". What's that you ask? Well, per the Republican Cloakroom

The Motion to Recommit (MTR) is the minority’s last opportunity to amend a bill before final passage. Historically, the minority could either offer a straight Motion to Recommit to send the bill back to committee, or a Motion to Recommit “with instructions,” which included a proposed amendment to the bill.

On Wednesday, May 1st, the Democrats moved for an MTR on a mining bill. According to the Library of Congress summary

This bill sets forth a process to allow mine operations to use, occupy, and conduct operations (e.g., construction of roads and other mining infrastructure activity) on public land regardless of whether a mineral deposit has been discovered on the land.

Typically, the majority would never help out the minority party on an MTR. But on Weds, six Republicans voted yes. That was enough to send the bill back to committee for more work. Why did these six members vote yes? It's unclear, but as the Hill notes, the mere fact of the vote is an embarrassment to House GOP leadership. Perhaps that's enough.

H.R. 6090 Antisemitism Awareness Act

Since the Hamas attack on Israel last October, there has been a significant increase in antisemitic incidents in the United States.

Over the last month, protests against Israeli military operations in Gaza have begun to expand on college and university campuses. While the protests have sometimes included antisemitic slogans, the protests also often have many Jewish American participants. The First Amendment of the Constitution provides robust protection for speech; even vile speech such as has occasionally been heard at protests. On the other hand, the Department of Education has a responsibility to help ensure colleges and universities do not allow discrimination to fester and grow. Congress's challenge is finding a way to balance these interests.

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY17) believes his H.R. 6090 Antisemitism Awareness Act achieves this balance. He says

The Antisemitism Awareness Act is a strong step in the right direction on this front, providing the Department of Education with a clear definition of antisemitism in order to combat this scourge on college campuses...The fact is, antisemitism is rampant in our country and we must quash it as quickly as possible.

This bill would define antisemitism for the Department of Education to use when investigating alleged incidents of antisemitism on college and university campuses.

It has been introduced before and passed the Senate in 2016 by unanimous consent. However, since it didn't pass the House then, it died with the end of the 114th Congress. This week the bill passed the House by 320-91.

Does the bill achieve its goal? Rep. Nadler (D-NY12) argues that it both overreaches on speech and potentially limits the Department of Education's ability to investigate antisemitism

As the ACLU notes, if this legislation were to become law, colleges and universities that want to avoid Title VI investigations, or the potential loss of federal funding, could end up suppressing protected speech criticizing Israel or supporting Palestinians. Moreover, it could result in students and faculty self-censoring their political speech. Even the IHRA definition’s lead author, Kenneth Stern, opposes codifying this definition for this reason.

Vigorous enforcement of federal civil rights law does not depend on defining terms like “antisemitism” or “racism”. In fact, codifying one definition of antisemitism, to the exclusion of all other possible definitions, could actually undermine federal civil rights law because antisemitism, like other forms of bigotry, evolves over time, and future conduct that comes to be widely understood as antisemitic may no longer meet the statutory definition.

Meanwhile, a small number of other Congress members, like Rep. Greene (R-GA14) and Rep. Gaetz (R-FL1) voted no on the bill because the definition in the bill potentially includes an antisemitic view that they themselves hold.

The bill will now head to the Senate for a vote.