U.S. House Approves Proposed State Dept anti-Islamophobia Office

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.

The House backed the bill in a party-line vote of 219-212 after a Republican congresswoman used an Islamophobic slur against a Democratic colleague.

The bill, authored by Representative Ilhan Omar, is believed to 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."

This comes following her feud with Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), who made Islamophobic remarks about her fellow congresswoman.

In a widely condemned video that surfaced over Thanksgiving weekend, Boebert joked Omar was a terrorist, leading to a public back-and-forth row over the matter that only worsened after the two shared a phone call to discuss it.