Today, Representatives Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) introduced the bipartisan Protect Economic and Academic Freedom Act, legislation that prohibits colleges and universities from receiving federal student aid if they engage in commercial and academic boycotts dictated by those in the boycott-sanction-divest (BDS) movement.
Support legislation that prohibits colleges and universities from receiving federal student aid if they engage in BDS-movement boycotts.
Occurrences
introduced the bipartisan Protect Economic and Academic Freedom Act
Evidence
The Congress.gov member profile shows Virginia Foxx in the 119th Congress with committee assignments on the Committee on Education and Workforce, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Committee on Rules. It also shows large volumes of member activity in the current Congress, including sponsored legislation, cosponsored legislation, remarks, and House roll call votes.
Assessments
The exact policy vehicle matching this promise was H.R.4009, the 2014 Protect Academic Freedom Act, which would have made colleges participating in boycotts of Israeli academic institutions ineligible for certain Higher Education Act funds. Virginia Foxx was not the sponsor and was not the bill’s sole listed cosponsor; the bill was referred to committee on February 6, 2014 and went no further. Foxx did later support related anti-BDS legislation by cosponsoring H.R.1697, the Israel Anti-Boycott Act, on May 24, 2017, but that was a broader anti-boycott trade measure rather than the specific higher-education federal-aid penalty described in the promise. That supports partial credit for advancing a related anti-BDS goal, but not full delivery of this specific commitment.