Jewish advocacy and political organizations were among the groups that welcomed returning and newly elected members of Congress to Capitol Hill on Friday for the first working day of the new session.
The American Jewish Committee’s entire political team was out on Capitol Hill during the day to reconnect with members and staff to “remind them of our priorities” and get a sense for how they are seeing the new Congress shape up, AJC managing director for policy and political affairs Julie Rayman told The Jerusalem Post.
“At the start of every Congress, what we try to do as a team is sit down and say, Okay, where are the opportunities here?” she said, adding that the Jewish community’s concerns are at the forefront of her team’s efforts.
Friday’s conversations centered on what the new Congress will mean for the Jewish community, Israel, and combating antisemitism, Rayman said.
Emphasis is put on the importance of meeting with new members of Congress who might not understand the role AJC plays at home and abroad, especially if they do not represent heavily Jewish areas, she said.
Rayman said her team spent a good deal of time with Rep. Dan Goldman (D-New York), who is succeeding Rep. Kathy Manning (D-North Carolina) as co-chair of the House Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism, to gauge his priorities and where they align with AJC’s work.
“We’re not missing any time here,” she said. “We’re really trying to make sure that we’re hitting the ground running as best we can.”
AJC CEO Ted Deutch would also be having meetings with lawmakers in the coming weeks, Rayman said.
She outlined legislative priorities relating to antisemitism, such as the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which stalled in the Senate for months under the last Congress. It needs to be reevaluated and refreshed in the coming Congress, she said.
Rayman said there were many questions about how the incoming Trump administration will utilize education policy for combating antisemitism, and it is unclear what the Department of Education will look like and how it will enforce Title VI policy.
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“Will the Department of Justice have to play a bigger role than they historically have in investigating and enforcing issues at educational institutions?” she asked. “We’re looking at a lot of the enforcement mechanisms that exist but haven’t been fully utilized or fully implemented, and trying to see how those could be bolstered or utilized to help support Jewish students on campuses and in educational institutions.”
Regarding Israel policy, Rayman said the AJC’s political team is thinking about how Congress can support what they assume will be a continued effort by the second Trump administration to “promote regional integration and Israel’s place in the neighborhood” with strengthening and expanding the Abraham Accords.
Determining what funding levers need to be activated to ensure that Congress is in line with the administration will be important, she said.
The most telling conversations Rayman said she had on Friday were with returning members who have been champions of the issues concerning the Jewish community.
Bipartisan opportunities
BOTH DEMOCRATS and Republicans are seeing opportunities for bipartisan work, she said, especially around the Abraham Accords and countering antisemitism on campus.
Rayman said she was heartened to see so many “I stand with Israel” signs and so many hostage posters on the walls.
“For anyone who’s sort of wondering about how our elected officials feel about Israel and the Jewish people at this time, if they walk around the halls of Congress, I think they’ll be really heartened by those physical displays of support,” she said.
Karen Paikin Barall, vice president of government affairs for Jewish Federations of North America, also said her entire team spent Friday on Capitol Hill.
“This is a day when everybody’s doors are open – meeting new members and their staffs, attending open houses, and swearing-in ceremonies, and checking in with our non-freshman friends in Congress,” she said.
Paikin Barall said her team made sure new members knew what the Jewish community’s priorities are, which she described as “very consistent.”
Jewish Federations of North America is focused on combating antisemitism, including a significant push to call attention to antisemitism in the medical and healthcare space, Paikin Barall said.
It is also working on securing increased Nonprofit Security Grant funds for Jewish communities and keeping the relationship with Israel strong, she added.
Matthew Kenney, vice president for governmental affairs for the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), said he spent most of Friday meeting with members of the House and Senate foreign affairs and armed services committees about their Middle East priorities.
Kenney cited Congress’s priority legislation to rein in the International Criminal Court with a bill that would impose visa and property blocking sanctions against ICC officials. While the legislation easily passed the House last summer, it failed to clear the then-Democratic controlled Senate.
Republican Administration likely to remove delays
The House Republican rules package for the incoming Congress includes the ICC legislation within the first 40 pages.
Kenney said he also expects to see much focus on the 2,000-pound bombs President Joe Biden embargoed for Israel, as well as the apparent slowing of deliveries of 10,000-lb. and 5,000-lb. bombs and Joint Direct Attack Munition kits.
The State Department has also been accused of slowing approval to deliver Hellfire missiles, tank and mortar shells, and D9 armored bulldozers.
Kenney said this would be a “key action item for the incoming administration” to review and see if some of that delay was due to policy decisions that were not made public or “bureaucratic inertia.”
While less of an urgent priority, Congress later this year will also have to address the Department of Defense cap for how many defense articles it can transfer into the war reserve stockpile for Israel, he said.
Last year, the US waived the $200 million limit, but it was not waived for future years, he added.
Kenney said it was unclear how Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency would slash defense spending.
The key priority for both the 119th Congress and the incoming Trump administration, however, is going to be dealing with Iran’s nuclear program, he said.
Kenney said he would soon begin outreach on JINSA’s paper “A Day 1 Priority: Strategy for the Next Administration to Prevent a Nuclear Iran,” which it released just before Congress’s holiday recess last month.
Along with securing the release of the hostages, defeating the Iranian axis would receive a huge amount of focus in Congress, even though the situation in the Middle East will be competing with concerns over Russia, Ukraine, China, and the US southern border, Kenney said.
