Divisions over a bipartisan bill targeting international governmental organizations, over their treatment of Israel, have forced House Republican leadership to remove the bill from consideration this week, the latest display of infighting within the GOP conference.
The House was set to vote on the IGO Anti-Boycott Act on Monday evening, one of many bills coming up under suspension, which means it does not need to go through the Rules Committee before hitting the chamber floor. The schedule released on Friday showed the bill slated for a vote, but revised schedules sent out over the weekend and on Monday morning showed the bill removed.
The Washington Examiner confirmed the bill was removed, with a spokesperson for Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) stating it was pulled because leadership is “working through some issues.” The leader’s office said it does not expect the bill to come up this week.
The bipartisan legislation introduced by Reps. Mike Lawler (R-NY) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) would criminalize U.S. citizens or companies for complying with or supporting boycotts called for by IGOs, such as the United Nations or the European Union. Under the law, those who violate it could face fines of up to $1 million and prison terms of up to 20 years.
Lawler and Gottheimer reintroduced the bill in January, stating it would stop IGOs from “discriminating against Israel.” Serving in one of the most competitive and purple districts in the United States, Lawler has been a vocal supporter of the Jewish state, particularly as antisemitism escalates in the height of the Hamas-Israel war that began in October 2023.
However, the bill, which passed almost unanimously out of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and on a voice vote last Congress, is facing pushback from several GOP lawmakers who have blasted it as infringing on First Amendment rights.
“I will be voting NO,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said over the weekend. “It is my job to defend American’s [sic] rights to buy or boycott whomever they choose without the government harshly fining them or imprisoning them.”
The pushback from Greene was expected, as the firebrand conservative lawmaker has argued in recent weeks that Congress and the Trump administration need to be focused on domestic policy work instead of laws and actions focused abroad.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), who frequently votes against his party regarding spending or foreign affairs, also said he would have voted “no” on the legislation. He later celebrated the decision to remove it from the vote schedule.
“Thank you for your vocal opposition on this platform,” Massie said. “It was a ridiculous bill that our leadership should have never scheduled for a vote.”
Several groups, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations, have also pushed back against the bill. CAIR said in a statement on Sunday that the legislation is a violation of the First Amendment and is “part of a broader, escalating effort to silence dissent, from the illegal detention and attempted expulsion of student protesters, to the denial of visas, and the targeting of nonprofit organizations and community leaders.”
A Gottheimer spokesperson blasted House leaders and GOP opponents to the legislation, stating they should “be ashamed of themselves.”
“It’s beyond outrageous and offensive that House leadership bowed to extreme-right forces and pulled this commonsense, bipartisan bill that makes antisemitic and hate-driven boycotts illegal. Who was behind this effort? None other than a member of Congress who once claimed that Jews have space lasers and another who refused to condemn Hamas,” the spokesperson told the Washington Examiner.
“Democrats and Republicans must work together to combat efforts to isolate, delegitimize, and demonize the Jewish community and our key democratic ally, Israel,” the spokesperson added.
The IGO Anti-Boycott Act is one of several steps Republicans have taken to crack down on antisemitism and show support for Israel since the GOP trifecta took effect earlier this year. On Wednesday, the House Education and the Workforce Committee will hold a hearing titled “Beyond the Ivy League: Stopping the Spread of Antisemitism on American Campuses.”
Presidents from California Polytechnic State University, Haverford College, and DePaul University will testify. This follows explosive testimonies from the former presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania last year that ultimately led to their resignations.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) can only afford to lose three votes to pass legislation along party lines due to the razor-thin majority, with that number fluctuating depending on Democrat absences.
With Greene and Massie already opposed to the bill, Johnson has room for only one more GOP detractor before he’d have to rely on Democrats to pass it. Given its bipartisan nature and 24 bipartisan cosponsors, the bill would likely pass if put on the floor Monday evening.
But Johnson often tries to avoid bringing measures to the floor that they can pass without the help of Democrats. Last year, Johnson caught fire from conservative circles over his ignoring of the Hastert Rule, an informal governing rule that states a speaker should only bring a bill to the floor if they can get a “majority of the majority.”
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Greene filed a motion to vacate in March last year after Johnson relied on Democrats to advance a government funding package. The speaker’s right flank has pushed back against contentious legislation that reflects bipartisan compromise when Democrats help push bills across the finish line, arguing they shouldn’t have to with a GOP trifecta.
The Washington Examiner reached out to Lawler for comment.