Legislature votes to kill local DEI

The House has passed the Senate version of a bill ending local diversity, equity and inclusion programs, fulfilling a priority of Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The House took up the measure from Republican Sen. Clay Yarborough (SB 1134) and passed it by a 77-33 vote.

“For more than a decade, we have seen the philosophy popularly known as diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, used to divide our society into competing factions,” said Republican Rep. Dean Black, who sponsored the House version.

“Not only have millions and millions of taxpayer dollars been wasted in the name of DEI, this philosophy has fostered resentment instead of goodwill, mediocrity instead of merit. And it has divided our society against itself.”

The measure aims to block local governments from passing DEI initiatives and makes ones already in law illegal, effective Jan. 1. The bill also creates a cause of action for citizens to file civil suits against local governments if they feel discriminated against by DEI laws.

DEI would be defined 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.”

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

However, “equal opportunity” would be protected, as would commemorations such as Black History Month and other legally-designated holidays and observances. Black film festivals and other culturally focused arts exhibits would also be permissible.

DEI officers could not be employed in that capacity, though they could conceivably be redesignated.

Democrats filed 10 amendments in an effort to alter the Senate product, all of which failed, but not before hours of enthusiastic discussion of the proposed changes among half a dozen of them.

Black rebuffed every proposal to change the language.

“At the end of the day, this bill just does three things. It says we’re going to hire the best person for the job without regard to what color you are and what sex you are and so on. And we’re going to give the contract to the person who provides the best value to taxpayers. And we’re going to have events that don’t divide Americans and instead bring us together. That’s it,” he said.

Democratic denunciations of the bill abounded anyway.

“This bill is an insult, and it’s not about stopping hate,” said Rep. Angie Nixon.

House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell said the bill wasn’t just “bad policy, it causes real harm to real people,” removing the “corrective lens” provided by DEI programs designed to ferret out “implicit bias” from local governments.

In his close, Black thanked Speaker Daniel Perez, a “conservative lion and a champion for common sense,” for “entrusting” him with this legislation.

“DEI has to D-I-E,” Black affirmed. “It’s in our way because we get this little army of paid bureaucrats now. We want to provide equal opportunities to everyone, and then we have a whole bunch of people going, well, how much are the women going to get, and the men going to get? And what about the Black people and the Brown people and the blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.”

Democrats were riled up by the direction of the sponsor’s comments, and Black was urged to “wrap it up” by Rep. Tyler Sirois, who was acting as Speaker at that time.