Dean Black measure nixing municipal DEI moves in House

By a 10-5 party-line vote, legislators in the House Intergovernmental Affairs Subcommittee are advancing Rep. Dean Black’s bid to kill local diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

That follows a Senate Committee advancing its version of the bill earlier this week.

HB 1001 would prohibit counties and cities from funding or promoting so-called DEI, including offices dedicated to those efforts. Violating the law would result in misfeasance or malfeasance charges against officials who defy the state mandate, and potential removal from office if the conflict persists.

There would be limits, Black said, to the charges against officials. He speculated that a Jewish film festival in a city building would be “completely justifiable” in the bill’s current form and that elected leaders would be immune from liability.

Black said the bill is timely and consistent with efforts on the state level “to reunify our people once again by destroying DEI philosophy in K-12 education, in our state university system, and in our state government.” He said DEI is “used to divide our society into competing factions,” where “much of the division of our peoples and wasted money is occurring in municipal and county government.”

DEI would be defined, per the bill, as any effort to “manipulate or otherwise influence the composition of employees with reference to race, color, sex, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation other than to ensure that hiring is conducted in accordance with state and federal anti-discrimination laws.”

Asked to explain manipulation in Committee, Black said it was an “effort to control the outcome,” such as an “effort to recruit people and give preference” based on demographic criteria.

Black also defended the preemption aspect of the bill, saying people have become “polarized over ideological reasons” and that “increasingly we recognize that we have to stop this” practice that is “ongoing and pervasive in our local governments.”

“We were elected to act, and we cannot allow local governments to tear our people apart. We have a compelling state interest to bring our people back together again, so that we can function as a society,” Black said.

The bill would also allow people to sue local governments if they believe they are breaking this law, such as passing a bill or appropriation in conflict with the measure.

Asked if the bill allowed a White supremacist to sue a local government over celebrating Yom Kippur, Black said “every citizen has a right to his day in court,” but that he’d be willing to consider amendment language to address concerns amid other “ongoing discussions” with unnamed “stakeholders” on this bill.

Additionally, “preferential treatment” and “special benefits” based on specific demographic criteria would be banned, as would diversity training.

However, “equal opportunity” would be protected, as would commemorations such as Black History Month.

Democrats were fiercely critical of the proposal, but some Republicans said it didn’t go far enough.

Rep. Kim Kendall suggested the language here should apply to School Districts as well.