HR 221: Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism Act

Congress: 116 · Status: passed · Israel/Palestine classification: pro-Israel

Data (JSON) — machine-readable record of this bill (identifiers, sponsor, classification, actions, and the member-by-member vote breakdown).

Official record on Congress.gov — full text, actions, and cosponsor history for HR 221.

Sponsor: Smith, Christopher H. (R-New Jersey)

Summary

Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism Act This bill establishes the Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating anti-Semitism as an ambassador-rank official, appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, who leads the Office to Monitor and Combat anti-Semitism within the Department of State. (Under current law, the special envoy is appointed by the Secretary of State.) The President may nominate the special envoy from among State Department officers and employees. The special envoy shall be the primary advisor in the government relating to monitoring and combating anti-Semitism in foreign countries. The individual shall be of recognized distinction in combating anti-Semitism.

Editorial Explainer

Now law: Public Law 116-326, signed January 13, 2021. Elevates the State Department's Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism from a position appointed by the Secretary of State to a full-time, ambassador-rank official nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate, serving as the government's primary advisor and coordinator on antisemitism in foreign countries.

Why it matters

The text is structural and defines nothing. Its significance is the institution it entrenches: the Envoy's office operates under the State Department's IHRA-based definition, whose contemporary examples cover Israel-related speech, and it has a bipartisan record of treating Israel boycotts as antisemitism, including the November 2020 declaration that BDS is antisemitic. VoteLog classifies Special Envoy bills pro-Israel on this documented institutional record; see the methodology page.

Cosponsors (87)

Roll-call votes (433)