Congress: 117 · Status: active · Israel/Palestine classification: neutral
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 S 1939.
Sponsor: Cotton, Tom (R-Arkansas)
Preventing Antisemitic Hate Crimes Act This bill requires a designated officer or employee of the Department of Justice (DOJ) to facilitate the expedited review of anti-Semitic hate crimes and reports of anti-Semitic hate crimes. Further, the bill requires DOJ to issue guidance for state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies on expanding public education campaigns to raise awareness of anti-Semitic hate crimes. Finally, the bill increases the statutory maximum prison term for an individual who is convicted of a federal hate crime offense after a prior conviction for a hate crime offense under federal law or a hate crime felony under state law.
This bill requires the Department of Justice to assign an officer to speed up review of antisemitic hate crimes and help state and local police run public awareness campaigns about antisemitic hate crimes. It also increases the maximum prison sentence for repeat federal hate crime offenders from 10 years to 20 years.
The bill strengthens enforcement infrastructure around antisemitic hate crimes specifically. It does not adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism, so it applies only to hate crimes based on Jewish identity—not to speech restrictions on Israel criticism. The measure affects the prosecution and penalties side of hate crime law, not the definition of what counts as antisemitic speech or expression.