U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) attends a news conference addressing the anti-Muslim comments made by Representative Lauren Boebert (R-CO) towards Omar, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S. The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Tuesday to approve a Democratic proposal for a U.S. State Department office to address anti-Muslim bias, after a Republican congresswoman used an Islamophobic slur against a Democratic colleague.
The House backed the bill in a party-line vote of 219-212.
The bill, authored by Representative Ilhan Omar, would create a special envoy for monitoring and combating Islamophobia and include state-sponsored anti-Muslim violence in the department’s annual human rights reports.
“We are in the midst of a staggering rise of anti-Muslim violence and discrimination around the world,” Omar said on the House floor. “Islamophobia is global in scope and we must lead the global effort to address it.”
The House vote comes a few weeks after video emerged showing first-term Republican lawmaker Laure
