State Senate committee approves bill aiming to end affirmative action in state, local government

Senate panel OKs plan to end race, sex preferences by state

Arkansas Senator Dan Sullivan, R-Jonesboro, presents Senate Bill 71 during a meeting of the Senate Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs at the State Capitol on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023. The bill would prohibit discrimination or preferential treatment by the state and other public entities, 

(Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Stephen Swofford)
Arkansas Senator Dan Sullivan, R-Jonesboro, presents Senate Bill 71 during a meeting of the Senate Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs at the State Capitol on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023. The bill would prohibit discrimination or preferential treatment by the state and other public entities, (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Stephen Swofford)

An Arkansas Senate committee on Tuesday advanced a bill that its sponsor Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Jonesboro, said is aimed at effectively ending affirmative action in state and local government.

In a voice vote with Sen. Clarke Tucker, D-Little Rock, dissenting, the Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee sent Senate Bill 71 to the Senate, after adding a nine-page amendment to the original two-page bill.

Tucker suggested the bill sends a message that racism and sexism are over in Arkansas, but Sullivan disputed that and said he doesn't believe that to be the case.

SB71 would define the state as the state of Arkansas, a city, county, an institution of higher education, a public school district, public special school district, or a political subdivision or governmental instrumentality of the state.

"The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, an individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in matters of state employment, public education, or state procurement," under a section of the bill, which states that it would only apply to an action taken after the effective date of the measure.

The bill states this section of the bill doesn't prohibit the following matters:

• Consideration by the state of bona fide qualifications based on gender that are reasonably necessary to the normal functions of state government, public education or state procurement.

• Invalidate a court order or consent decree that is in force at the effective date of this measure.

• Prohibit an action necessary to establish or maintain eligibility for a federal program if ineligibility would demonstrably result in a loss of federal funds to the state.

• Preempt state discrimination law or federal discrimination law.

Under SB71, a person who negligently violates this section of the bill would be guilty of a Class A misdemeanor.

Sullivan told the Senate committee "This [type of bill] has been vetted at the national level.

[DOCUMENT: Read Copy of Senate Bill 71
» arkansasonline.com/201bill71/]

"We would be the eighth state to put laws like this, nondiscrimination laws, in effect," he said. "I think it is necessary. I think the time has come to do that."

Sullivan said the bill wouldn't apply to donations to higher education institutions' foundations for scholarships to students.

But Tucker said if SB71 is enacted into state law, "the state of Arkansas is saying that discrimination no longer exists, racism no longer exists, sexism no longer exists, and there is nothing more we need to do to make sure that people who have been historically discriminated against and historically disenfranchised ... to put them on equal footing with everyone else.

"I think that statement would be absolutely wrong ... morally and factually," he said. "I think we have a long ways to go to make sure that people who have been historically discriminated against have the same opportunities that people like I have.

"I think that this is the wrong direction for the state for that reason," Tucker said. "If you look at what is happening in America, I think that is hard to disagree with."

He said the state's minority and women-owned business economic development law is not addressed by the bill, and "we are not yet where we need to be.

"If racism were over, then it would basically work out to be where the percentage of the contracts yielded and goods purchased [from] minority businesses would be about the same as the minority population in Arkansas, but our goal [of 10 %] is much less what the minority population of Arkansas is ... and [the goal of ] 5% for women is not even remotely close to the percent of women in the population in this state," Tucker said.

He said the bill would create a crime for Arkansas Economic Development Commission and other state employees doing their jobs, so "we are subjecting state employees to criminal liability, fines, fees, imprisonment, for negligently violating this act and doing their job and also subjecting cities, counties, local government and the state government to attorneys' fees."

In response, Sullivan said, "You effectively accused me of racism.

"And the statements that you are making that racism isn't over, I agree, and sexism isn't over," Sullivan told Tucker. "Effectively, you are saying that this bill denies that and since I am presenting the bill that I am guilty for those things, and I disagree with that strongly.

"This bill puts everyone on an equal field," he said.

"If the purpose of affirmative action is to give people who are in need a course of action, that's exactly what the bill says," Sullivan said. "The bill says people who are in need qualify, and it doesn't have to be based upon the race, or a sex or a gender or whatever. This effectively puts everybody in the category of if you are in need this bill addresses that, and I think it is very fair."

Tucker said it wasn't his intent to accuse Sullivan of racism.

"I do think the message the bill sends is that racism is over, [but] ... I don't think that is an accusation of racism, at least that is not the way I intended it," Tucker said.

As to whether a crime is committed under SB71, "we are serious," Sullivan said. "We are serious against racism. We are serious against people being taken advantage of or not having a seat at the table. We are serious about that and, if you are going to treat people differently, then we are not going to stand for that and there will be a crime and a penalty, and we expect our state employees to take it seriously and make sure we don't do that."

Vernice Nazare of Conway, vice director of the Little Rock region of the Black Community Development and Chamber of Commerce of Arkansas, who operates King Care Painting, told the Senate committee she believes the state's minority-owned business program "was a great kind of a substitute for restitution and reparations because I felt supported by the state, by the government, because of this program.

"It encourages me to encourage others around cooperation and collaboration, and even share my skills to help all people," she said.

Nazare said the affirmative action and the minority and women-owned business programs have not even lasted a full generation.

"I feel like this is a premature elimination of the program," she said.

Sullivan said "I think it is the right time.

"I think it is time to move beyond being discriminatory toward some and non-discriminatory toward others. It would put everybody on an equal footing, and that's what this bill does," he said.

Sen. John Payton, R-Wilburn, said "the idea that you can't start a business without a government contract or without a government grant is foreign to me.

"My customers, the used car dealers of the state of Arkansas, the new car dealers of the state of Arkansas, are a very diverse group of businessmen and women of all colors and races," he said.

Among other things, the bill would repeal the state law requiring all state-supported colleges and universities to establish a program for the retention of blacks and other members of minority groups as students, faculty and staff, and the state law requiring each state-supported institution of higher education to prepare an affirmative action program for the recruitment of blacks and other members of minorities for faculty and staff positions and for enrollment as students.

The measure also would repeal the state law requiring each state department, agency, board, commission and institution of higher education and every constitutional officer to adopt and pursue a comprehensive equal employment hiring program designed to achieve a goal of increasing the percentage of minority employees within the state department, agency, board, commission or institution of higher education and within the constitutional office to a level that approximates the percentage of minorities in the state's population, and repeal the state law requiring the Department of Education to set goals for increasing the number of teachers and administrators of minority races and ethnicities in the state.


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