An eruption of campus protests against Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza has again put Chuck Schumer — the highest-ranking elected Jewish leader in U.S. history — in an unenviable spot.

The demonstrations first picked up steam at Columbia University, in the metropolitan heart of Schumer’s home state, but they’ve since spread across the country. And when Democrats returned to the Hill this week, his caucus’ vulnerable incumbents were peppered with questions about whether they would denounce the protests amid reported antisemitic incidents.

Just weeks after taking on political risk by urging Israel to hold elections to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and criticizing the same Palestinian civilian casualties that protesters object to, Schumer publicly condemned the campus demonstrators.

It’s a delicate balance for the Democratic leader, who clearly felt a personal weight before speaking out against the Israeli government. As Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) put it: “It’s a hard time, especially for him. It is for all of us.”

Schumer’s Democratic colleagues say he’s handling the burden well. And his No. 2 made clear that he’s not alone in having to draw tough lines against demonstrations that turn discriminatory while projecting respect for the broader right to protest.

“It’s a tough challenge. If you respect the Constitution, you want to say freedom of speech is fundamental in America,” said Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). “But there are lines you can’t cross. And when they cross the lines, they need to be held accountable.”

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), one of the House’s most senior Jewish members, said that “I agree with” Schumer’s actions so far — suggesting that too much attention is being paid to the campus protests against Israel. “The news media is making this a huge thing. It is, in fact, a small thing.”

But that “small thing” isn’t going anywhere. Though the Columbia protests largely dissipated Tuesday night after at least 200 police entered campus to disperse protesters who had occupied a campus building. Many other universities are bracing for disruptions to their commencement ceremonies later this spring, and school administrations are continuing to struggle with the line between free speech and impermissible disruptions.

The tense images and video emerging from campus protests have catalyzed Republican-led efforts to pass legislation addressing antisemitism, including a proposal to strengthen Department of Education discrimination standards that overwhelmingly passed the House on Wednesday. Senate Republicans are already calling on Schumer to immediately take up the House legislation, but he would not commit to that on Wednesday.

“We haven’t seen what the House is sending us yet,” Schumer said.

Other Republicans urged him, even in lieu of the antisemitism bill, to make a formal show of opposition to the campus protests.

“I think he especially needs to show leadership,” said Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.). “If nothing else, just a resolution saying this is the voice of the Senate, that we condemn these riots.”

Notably, Schumer’s fellow New Yorker and Democratic leader, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, formally previewed his support for Wednesday’s bill before it passed.

And Schumer has gone farther in criticizing Israel in recent weeks than many would have expected of him just a few months ago. Even before his remarks calling for Netanyahu’s removal, he delivered a November speech on antisemitism that grew uncharacteristically personal about the intersection of his faith and politics during a troubling time.

After Schumer’s anti-Netanyahu speech, which drew him a rebuke from some Jewish American groups, Welch could be seen giving the majority leader a hug on the floor.

Nicholas Wu contributed to this report.

The House offered its first concrete response to a wave of pro-Palestinian campus protests nationwide that have often included antisemitic language.

The legislation, led by Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) and passed on a bipartisan 320 to 91 vote, would update the definition of antisemitism used in enforcing federal anti-discrimination laws. But the Senate, as of Wednesday, has indicated no plans to act on it.

The action comes amid a wave of escalating protests — and arrests — across the country in locations as varied as Columbia University, UCLA, the University of Texas at Austin, George Washington University and scores of other schools. Republicans have vowed to keep the spotlight on the demonstrations, with Speaker Mike Johnson vowing to stay focused on the issue “like white on rice.”

Both parties have condemned the explicitly antisemitic components of the protests, though many Democrats have expressed unease at cracking down on the free speech rights of students. That nuance isn’t convincing to the bill’s sponsor.

“Anyone who votes against this bill because they would rather put political expediency and electoral politics ahead of anything else has no business being a member of Congress,” Lawler said on the floor. “’Never again’ is now and we must act.”

Overall, 70 Democrats sided with 21 of the chamber’s Republicans in opposing the measure.

The bill would require the Education Department to codify the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism as it enforces anti-discrimination laws — adding heft to a Trump-era executive order for stricter enforcement. Republicans have brushed aside Democratic calls for consideration of a broader bipartisan bill that would establish a national coordinator to counter antisemitism.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell indicated antisemitism “needs to be dealt with, with consequences” and said Republicans would pursue ways of penalizing colleges for not adequately addressing the problem.

“We’re taking a look at how to condition that money on how they handle their campuses in situations like this,” McConnell said at a press conference Wednesday. “We’re serious about this. We’re going to take a look at what legislatively we might do.”

Many Democrats told POLITICO as late as Wednesday morning they were still undecided on how to vote on the measure. They viewed floor consideration of the legislation as a cynical attempt to divide their party without adequately tackling antisemitism in the U.S.

“It’s a political stunt,” said Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. “It may divide us on this vote, but it’s not going to divide us … we won’t be in dysfunction like [Republicans] are.”

Many privately conceded the scenes at campuses around the country likely boosted the vote total for the legislation — even as some lawmakers view the text as poorly-written and unserious.

“That doesn’t mean a lot of us aren’t still struggling with the substance of it,” Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) said in a brief interview. “It’s not a well-written bill. It’s not a bill that’s ever going to become law. … They are succeeding in getting us fighting about it.”

The bill had a number of notable opponents, such as Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) who is one of the most senior elected Jewish officials in the country. The American Civil Liberties Union also pushed back on the legislation, warning in a letter that it would “likely chill free speech of students on college campuses by incorrectly equating criticism of the Israeli government with antisemitism.”

Palestinian advocates have also criticized the Trump-era executive order and similar measures over concerns that codifying a the IHRA definition could also lead to punishing pro-Palestinian speech on campus.

President Joe Biden’s White House notably did not come out with a formal statement of administration policy on the legislation, as it had for various other House measures on the floor this week.

Senate Republicans urged Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to take up the legislation after its passage in the House. He’s given no indication that he intends to do so.

“That’s a bill that we should probably bring to the floor and pass over here as well,” said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) on Wednesday.

Bianca Quilantan contributed to this report.

House and Senate Democrats are determined to ensure their priorities don’t get short shrift in a likely bumpy upcoming government funding cycle, with Congress hurtling toward a presidential election this fall.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said Wednesday that Democrats will insist on a boost for nondefense funding that matches the Pentagon budget hike Republicans will inevitably push for in coming months, despite funding caps set by last summer’s bipartisan debt deal.

“We do need stronger investments in our military and national security to address the challenges we face today,” Murray told reporters. “But investing in child care, in health care, in education, our environment, in workers, in critical research and all of those other priorities here at home matters just as much as the investments we make in our military.”

Similarly, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Democrats in the lower chamber will accept nothing less than funding levels established by the bipartisan debt package.

Markups on the horizon: Murray also said she intends to mark up fiscal 2025 spending bills in committee, although she didn’t offer details as to when. Senate appropriators approved all of their funding bills in committee last summer for the first time in five years.

“I don’t have a timeline for you,” Murray said Wednesday about scheduling markups. “I’m talking to [ranking member] Susan Collins about how we’re going to get it done.”

Key context: The debt agreement signed by President Joe Biden last year allows for a 1 percent increase to defense and nondefense budgets for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, capping defense at $895.2 billion and nondefense at $710.7 billion.

Since Biden and former Speaker Kevin McCarthy struck that deal, conservatives have unsuccessfully fought to slash money for domestic programs, only to wind up with roughly level funding across two government funding packages cleared by Congress in March.

Senior appropriators, like Collins and Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), who oversees the defense spending bill, have already suggested that a 1 percent budget boost for the military might be inadequate when it comes to keeping up with inflation and readiness needs next year.

Nicholas Wu, Jennifer Scholtes, Connor O’Brien and Joe Gould contributed to this report. 

The Michigan Senate race is becoming more of a headache than Republicans had hoped.

Big names in the GOP from former President Donald Trump to Senate campaign chief Steve Daines have united behind Mike Rogers as their preferred pick in the state’s open Senate race. They hoped to clear the primary to save resources and focus on the general election.

It’s turning into an expensive contest anyway.

Sandy Pensler, a wealthy investor, is going up on TV on Wednesday with an ad attacking Rep. Elissa Slotkin, the likely Democratic nominee. He plans to remain on air for the vast majority of the time until the Aug. 6 primary. And he has a seven-figure ad buy in the works — future spots that will take aim at Rogers directly.

Pensler’s net worth is upwards of $80 million, meaning he has the resources to mount a real threat. And a fierce TV war will disadvantage Republicans, who will have to regroup quickly to take on Slotkin, a prolific fundraiser.

The Senate GOP campaign arm has sought — largely successfully — to avoid messy primary battles this cycle by elevating their preferred candidates in key races. (One notable exception was Ohio, which hosted an increasingly nasty primary in March.)

Senate Republicans drafted a slew of wealthy candidates to help them keep pace with well-funded Democrats in states like Montana and Wisconsin. But Pensler was not one of them. Instead, the National Republican Senatorial Committee recruited Rogers, a GOP moderate who served in Congress for 14 years and chaired the House Intelligence Committee.

The Michigan Senate GOP field has narrowed considerably. Former Rep. Peter Meijer, another potential self-funder, withdrew his candidacy last week. Former Detroit Police Chief James Craig also dropped out of the race. Former Rep. Justin Amash, however, is still in.

Republicans have not won a Senate race in Michigan since 1994. Incumbent Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) is retiring, and Slotkin faces little opposition for the Democratic nomination.

Pensler’s latest spot, timed to coincide with Trump’s Michigan rally, knocks Slotkin for refusing to condemn Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) for comments she made on the Israel-Hamas war. The ad will run on cable statewide, backed by a six-figure buy.

“Rashida and Elissa, you have no moral compass,” Pensler says in the direct-to-camera spot. “You’re an embarrassment to Michigan and America.”

Some early polling shows Rogers with a lead. But he ended March with only $1.6 million in the bank. The Great Lakes Conservative Fund, a pro-Rogers super PAC, reported only having only $120,000 on hand at the end of March. It had already spent nearly $2.5 million.

Pensler last ran for Senate in 2018, losing the nomination to John James. James ran ads attacking Pensler for trashing Trump “behind closed doors.”

Pensler has spent more than $600,000 on TV ads already, according to the media firm AdImpact, but he stopped in early April and reduced his buy after Trump endorsed Rogers. Now he’s back — a sign he’ll stay in, and keep fighting, to the chagrin of the Republicans who had hoped for a quiet primary.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said Wednesday she will officially trigger the clock to hold a referendum on Speaker Mike Johnson’s leadership next week — an effort that now seems doomed.

Greene and her allies will bring up the motion to vacate resolution as privileged, which would then force a House vote on Johnson remaining speaker within two legislative days. It would be the second attempt to depose a speaker within seven months.

“Next week, I am going to be calling this motion to vacate. Absolutely I’m calling it. I can’t wait to see Democrats go out and support a Republican speaker and have to go home to their primaries and have to run for Congress again, having supported a Republican speaker, a Christian conservative. I think that’ll play well,” Greene said at a press conference Wednesday morning.

Greene didn’t immediately specify what day she will move to force a vote, with the House set to leave town on Wednesday and return on Monday. But Republican leadership is strongly considering trying to move to quickly dispense with her proposal to fire the speaker as soon as she pushes it to the floor, three Republicans familiar with the plans told POLITICO.

Republicans had been bracing for Greene to trigger the speaker-deposing vote as soon as Wednesday. But Greene and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who spoke alongside her at Wednesday’s press conference, are hoping the extra time will build pressure not only on their fellow GOP colleagues, but also on Johnson, who they want to resign.

“Everybody needs the weekend to prepare. I am not irresponsible. I care about my conference,” Greene said.

Massie added that Johnson “deserves a weekend to think about it. He should resign.”

Johnson has previously dismissed any suggestion that he will resign. Unlike the effort against former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Greene’s motion already seems certain to fail, as House Democratic leaders announced Tuesday that they would step in to save Johnson.

“I have no reaction. The statement that we issued yesterday speaks for itself,” Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Wednesday.

But Greene said on Wednesday that she will move forward with the vote anyway, arguing that the House GOP conference has gotten out of sync with the party’s base. She described those voters as furious with Johnson after he helped push through a controversial surveillance program and billions in additional Ukraine aid. Even if the vote fails, she added that it would give voters a “list of names.”

And she forcefully pushed back on Wednesday when asked if forcing a vote only further highlights House GOP divisions and plays into the hands of House Democrats.

“That little narrative that you echoed is a lie. That comes from the Republican establishment that Republican voters are ready to take a sledgehammer to and destroy. They’re fed up with it. You wanna know why? That’s bullshit,” she said.

She also dismissed questions about her going against the wishes of former President Donald Trump, who has thrown his support behind Johnson since she originally filed her motion to vacate the speaker weeks ago.

“I’m the biggest supporter of President Trump,” she said. “I fight for his agenda every single day. And that’s why I’m fighting here against my own Republican conference, to fight harder against the Democrats.”

So far, only two Republicans have said they will back Greene’s effort: Massie and Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.). Massie forcefully defended Greene and their plans against Johnson at the Wednesday morning press conference. Gosar, according to Greene, was unable to join due to prior scheduling commitments.

But several other conservatives have remained noncommittal, sparking concerns that the number of GOP rebels could grow. It wouldn’t be enough to actually tank Johnson’s speakership, but would give some of his hardliners a symbolic way to voice their displeasure.

During a House Freedom Caucus meeting on Monday, members discussed how they would handle the upcoming vote, with most saying lawmakers should vote their conscience, according to two people familiar with the meeting. Others were turned off by Greene leading the charge, especially given the group ejected the Georgia lawmaker from their own ranks last year. The group is not expected to take a formal position on the ouster effort, according to two members.

Johnson, during an interview with The Hill on NewsNation, downplayed Greene’s effort — saying “bless her heart” when the interviewer brought up the Georgia lawmaker. Asked if he believed Greene was a serious lawmaker, he replied: “I don’t think she is proving to be.”

Greene, asked about his comments at Wednesday’s press conference, brushed off the criticism.

“I’m not into personal attacks. That’s not why I’m doing this,” she said, despite a history of personal attacks against her colleagues. “This has nothing to do with Mike Johnson as a person. But this is about his job performance.”

Nicholas Wu contributed to this report.

All eyes are on the House on Wednesday as the chamber seeks to send a rebuke to pro-Palestinian protests sweeping universities around the country.

Lawmakers will vote on the bipartisan Antisemitism Awareness Act in the late afternoon, which would codify the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism into federal anti-discrimination laws. The White House has not offered a statement of administration policy on the bill.

The vote comes after police in New York cleared pro-Palestinian protesters from Columbia University overnight, while dueling protest groups clashed on UCLA’s campus, among other university clashes nationwide.

That’s not the only measure on the chamber’s agenda, though. House members will also vote on a resolution from Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) condemning immigration policies put forward by President Joe Biden’s administration.

Besides legislative business: Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) have a 9 a.m. press conference scheduled regarding Mike Johnson’s speakership and their efforts to oust the Louisianian from the post.

For more, read Olivia and Jordain’s report, which asks the question: Is Greene’s effort hurting herself more than Johnson?

Across the Capitol, things seem likely to be slightly calmer. Senators are due to vote on a federal judicial nominee for a spot in Illinois at 11:45 a.m. and will vote later in the afternoon to advance a reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration.

The bipartisan FAA deal is one of the last must-pass bills before the election, a final opportunity for lawmakers to attach their legislative priorities. And that’s making negotiations on the package a lot tougher, warned Senate Minority Whip John Thune.

“There’s a lot of non-germane stuff that people want to put on this,” Thune, a member of the Commerce Committee, said on Tuesday. “Once you go down that path, then everybody wants their non-germane amendment too. If it deals with FAA or TSA or airlines, then I assume there’s going to be a path forward.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is eyeing using the FAA bill to also force through a cannabis banking bill and crypto legislation. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said adding the cannabis bill won’t make the cut: “Not if you want to pass it.”

There will undoubtedly be other efforts to push legislative priorities onto the bill and its impending May 10 deadline. With shorter than usual sessions this week and next, Senate negotiations are likely to extend into next week, Thune said.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer harshly criticized the “lawlessness” of some protesters at Columbia University in his home state of New York, wading into the high-profile demonstrations over the war in the Middle East.

The New York Democrat decried vandals and those occupying a building on campus during the dayslong demonstrations over Israel’s response to Hamas’ terrorist attacks. The protests have become a national political flashpoint, spreading across the country and prompting increasingly stern responses from high-profile Democrats.

“Smashing windows with hammers and taking over university buildings is not free speech. It is lawlessness. And those who did it should promptly face consequences that are not merely a slap on the wrist,” Schumer said in a floor speech. “Campuses cannot be places of learning and argument and discussion when protests veer into criminality.”

It amounted to a forceful denunciation of the demonstrators by Schumer, who has walked a tricky line on issues surrounding Israel over the past six months. He’s sought to send the country more aid to support the war effort, but also called for new leadership and criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

As the protests intensify, Schumer is one of a growing number of New York Democrats raising alarm. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said she’s worried about safety on campus, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called the antisemitism on display “completely unacceptable and deeply disturbing.”

“Students who wrongfully occupy buildings, destroy private property, and willfully disrupt campus life should be held accountable,” said Reps. Adriano Espaillat and Jerry Nadler, who urged the school “swiftly to remove the students who have engaged in unlawful actions so the campus can reopen and return to normal activity.”

Schumer, the highest ranking Jewish official in the U.S. government, gave a high-profile speech on antisemitism last year and called some actions at the school in recent days “loathsome.”

“When Jewish students are targeted for being Jewish, when protests exhibit verbal abuse, systemic intimidation or glorification of the murderous and hateful Hamas or the violence of Oct. 7 … that is antisemitism,” Schumer said Tuesday.

Republicans have been criticizing the demonstrations for days. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that “weakness and inaction from campus leaders has allowed universities to become cauldrons of criminal chaos.”

Veterans On Duty, a nonprofit advocacy organization, is preparing a high six-figure television, radio and digital advertising campaign that will start Wednesday to thank Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republicans for supporting emergency spending on foreign aid.

The campaign follows a long-running conservative effort to bring down the package, which will send billions of dollars of aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. A 30-second ad featured in the campaign includes footage from the late President Ronald Reagan saying that America is the “leader of the free world, whether we want to be or not … We are the only ones who can preserve the peace.”

Veterans On Duty Chair Jeremy Hunt, in a statement provided to POLITICO, said: “The leadership displayed by Speaker Johnson and so many national-security-minded Republicans in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, even in the face of opposition in their own party, is noble.”