Lame-Duck Bills by 2 Key Democrats Herald 2023 Racial-Equity Battle on Hill

Committee chairwoman Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D- NY) speaks during a House Oversight Committee hearing titled "The Rise of Anti-LGBTQI+ Extremism and Violence in the United States" in Washington on Dec 14, 2022. Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Rep. Carolyn Maloney lost her primary contest earlier this year, and so won’t be returning to Congress in 2023, although the New York Democrat’s influence in the lower chamber might continue well into the New Year, because of two racial-equity-related proposals filed on Dec. 16 by the exiting chairwoman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.

Joined in the effort by Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), a member of the “Squad” of progressive Democrats, Maloney promises that the two measures—the “Federal Government Equity Improvement Act“ and the “Equity in Agency Planning Act”—will “ensure that federal agencies continue this important work for years to come.”

In a joint statement issued with Pressley on the same day the bills were introduced, Maloney said the two proposals will “help fulfill the [Biden] Administration’s mission by giving them the essential tools to make sure that federal policy works for everyone. These bills will support the critical work of removing systemic barriers across the federal government and ensure that all voices will be heard.”

In the same statement, Pressley said, “Building on the Biden-Harris Administration’s Executive Order, our bills would provide essential tools to advance equity through data collection and critical stakeholder engagement. The federal government is expansive in its reach and a dedicated commitment to systems that center and advance equity across agencies is essential and long overdue.”

Pressley was referring to one of the first actions taken on Jan. 20, 2021, by President Joe Biden within hours of his being sworn in as the nation’s chief executive.

Executive Order (EO) 13985—“Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government”—declared, according to the Biden administration, that “although the ideal of equal opportunity is the bedrock of American democracy, entrenched disparities in our laws, public policies, and institutions too often deny equal opportunity to individuals and communities.

“The President’s Order emphasized the enormous human costs of systemic racism, persistent poverty, and other disparities, and directed the Federal Government to advance an ambitious whole-of-government equity agenda that matches the scale of the challenges we face as a country and the opportunities we have to build a more perfect union.”

Biden’s EO set in motion a movement throughout the executive branch that, to date, has resulted in 90 major federal departments and agencies developing and submitting official “Equity Action Plans.” But the temporary nature of the plans prompted the two House Democrats to introduce measures to make the equity process a permanent feature of federal law.

The Maloney–Pressley bills accomplish two major goals of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) advocates associated with the Black Lives Matter/Critical Race Theory movement.

First, Maloney’s proposal creates a DEI enforcement bureaucracy within the federal bureaucracy, centered on three new government entities. An “Agency Equity Action Team” within every federal department and agency “would serve as an agency hub on equity issues,” according to an oversight committee document.

The “Equity Subcommittee” of the White House Performance Improvement Council would “share information regarding practices that have led to more equitable service provision across the federal government.”

The “Equitable Data Working Group” would “share best practices related to the equitable collection and use of data, among other things,” throughout the executive branch.

Second, Pressley’s bill creates a DEI-based budget and planning quota for each federal department and agency, requiring them to “include at least one goal, or 20 percent of the total number of goals, whichever is greater, relating to improving the equitable provision of services.”

The two bills would, if they become law, institutionalize Pressley’s claim that “racial equity is a lens that we should bring to every policy decision, at every level of government.”

Conservative critics of race-based federal policies have a different view.

“This puts the DEI agenda on steroids throughout the government,” Heritage Foundation scholar Michael Gonzalez told The Epoch Times.

In a detailed May 22 analysis of Biden’s EO and the associated work plans, Gonzalez and three of his Heritage colleagues wrote that “the plans double down on ‘equity’ measures that are at war with the nation’s very ideals and laws. The word ‘equity’ itself has come to mean the opposite of the equal treatment the law calls for, and now means measures that the government employs to treat people differently based not on need, but on race, membership in an ethnic category the government has created for them in the first place, or on a predetermined victimhood status.”

When asked what he believes would be the biggest effect of passage of the two bills, Gonzalez said, “It looks to me like it would insure that there is a straight jacket ensuring equity in everything the government does.

“And, of course, this is equity as defined by far-leftists like Representative Pressley, that is, government and private-sector entities treating Americans differently because of their race, in violation of the Constitution, our laws, and our ideals—the opposite of equality.”

A senior congressional aide who asked not to be identified told The Epoch Times that introduction of the two bills was delayed while awaiting technical assistance. A Pressley spokesman didn’t respond when The Epoch Times asked for one or two examples of systemic barriers, how the two bills would specifically address such barriers, and why such barriers remain despite the multitude of laws, regulations, and executive orders enacted by the federal government since enactment of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

In an Oct. 15, 2021, letter to Office of Management and Budget Acting Director Shalanda Young and Ambassador Susan Rice, Maloney and Pressley emphasized the importance of aggressively implementing Biden’s domestic policy agenda.

“To ensure the success of the Biden-Harris administration’s agenda, racial equity must be central to decision-making across the federal government. This sweeping objective will require the collection of data that aligns with an up-to-date understanding of people’s identities and that reflects how diverse groups are differently situated,” the letter reads.

“Without access to crucial demographic data such as race, ethnicity, disability, and income, agencies cannot properly identify barriers to equity or develop meaningful plans to remove these barriers. ... As President Biden’s executive order recognizes, meaningful progress toward equity requires the use of assessment tools to analyze the impact of agencies’ policies and programs on minority and underserved communities.”

While Maloney won’t be a member of the 118th Congress that convenes on Jan. 3, 2023, Pressley is expected to reintroduce both bills, both to bolster the Biden administration’s initiative and to enable Democrats to accuse Republicans of opposing efforts to achieve equity in federal policymaking.

In a related development on Dec. 20, it was learned that the 4,000-plus page omnibus spending bill that Congress is expected to approve before Christmas includes nearly 1,500 earmarks.

Among them are earmarks to spend $1.2 million to establish LGBT centers at San Diego Community College, $3 million for a new American LGBT museum in New York, and $956,000 to create an “Equity Incubator” at the University of Maryland.