Mark Takano Accuses GOP Of Making 'Public Theater Out Of Legitimate Pain' In Antisemitism Hearing

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During a House Education Committee hearing before the Congressional recess, Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA) asked Former Deputy Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Department of Education Matt Nosanchuk about ethics violations of the Trump Administration.

Transcript

00:00California, Mr. Takano. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you to witnesses for being here.

00:05Mr. Nozenchuk, in your time with the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights,

00:09you helped to lead the most resolutions of anti-Semitism cases in OCR's history.

00:16Congratulations on that. In your experience, is a committee hearing such as this

00:21an appropriate venue to determine whether an individual school has violated Title VI laws?

00:30Thank you for the question. Title VI investigations are very fact-intensive.

00:35When they're opened, OCR investigators go onto a campus and speak with people, look at documents.

00:43It is not an inquiry into whether any specific word is anti-Semitic, but it's a holistic determination

00:51as to whether there was harassment or hostile environment that violates Title VI.

00:56So it's a fairly non-political, dry, fact-intensive inquiry.

01:04Yes, non-political.

01:05Okay. The Trump administration has made a lot of commitments to combating anti-Semitism on college campuses.

01:13Is the current Office of Civil Rights, or OCR, equipped to fulfill those promises?

01:17From what I understand, Congressman Takano, it is not.

01:23As I noted in my testimony, the staff has been cut by half.

01:28I understand that now the average caseload for the investigators remaining is 200 cases per person,

01:35and it's very important to note that of the 7 of 12 regional offices that were eliminated,

01:40those were the offices where the greatest expertise was for investigating and bringing to resolution the anti-Semitism cases that we resolved.

01:53And as I said, you know, we resolved a record number of five times more than the first Trump administration.

01:59So in your experience, pursuing anti-Semitism charges or claims determining whether or not those anti-Semitism did occur

02:10or any form of discrimination under Title VI, it's a time-intensive and staff-intensive process.

02:16Yes, absolutely, and it's not simply determining whether there was an instance of anti-Semitism,

02:20but it's determining whether the instances that occurred rise to the level of harassment or hostile environment

02:26such that Title VI has been violated.

02:29Thank you. OCR has dismissed over 3,000 civil rights complaints between March and June of this year.

02:36Mr. Nosenchuk, what is the difference between conducting investigations based on press reporting and external sources,

02:42as the Trump administration is doing,

02:44and doing a process-based Title VI investigation that's based on specific complaints filed,

02:51as was the practice of past administrations?

02:54Thank you for the question.

02:55I think the best illustration of that is actually in a U.S. News and World Report opinion piece

03:01that a student at Harvard, Sarah Silverman, just published yesterday.

03:05She wrote that she had had her mezuzah stripped off of her doorpost.

03:09It was the one instance of individual discrimination that was detailed in the Harvard Notice of Violation,

03:16and the administration did not even talk to her about what had happened.

03:21So relying on press reports, relying on broad statements or perceptions is not how Title VI is supposed to work.

03:30Again, it's looking at the anti-Semitic discrimination that's occurred,

03:36and then determining whether it has risen to the level of hostile environment,

03:41determining whether Jews have been targeted unlawfully.

03:45Have the Trump administration's actions made campus more safe or less safe for students who are victims of anti-Semitism?

03:53Based on everything I'm hearing from Jewish students, including the one whom I just mentioned,

03:59it's making campuses less safe.

04:02Mr. Rosencheck, Republicans claim that certain institutions of higher education, like Georgetown,

04:07are subjects of foreign influence that radicalizes their students.

04:11As a former federal government employee, you've taken a number of ethics trainings in your own career.

04:17Which would you say is an example of undue foreign influence?

04:21A, a long-standing two-decade academic partnership with a foreign country that serves to build diplomatic partnerships,

04:28or B, a $400 million luxury plane gifted to the President of the United States by a foreign government for its personal use?

04:35Thank you for the question, Congressman.

04:40I would say there are rules for transparency and reporting that pertain to funding from foreign governments to universities,

04:49and those, I believe, need to be followed.

04:54Well, the majority uses hearings like this one to rail against foreign influence

04:57while their own administration routinely violates clear ethics boundaries with foreign governments.

05:02They have turned this hearing room into a kangaroo court where they spend our time litigating a predetermined outcome

05:09to do nothing, actually to help Jewish students, just make public theater out of legitimate pain.

05:16This scorched-earth warfare against higher education will endanger academic freedom, innovative research,

05:22and international cooperation for generations to come, and I yield back.

05:26Thanks, gentlemen.

05:27This time has expired and now recognize...

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