Anti-Racism in Public Health Act

Summary#

This bill would add a new National Center on Antiracism and Health inside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It defines "antiracism" and directs the CDC to appoint a director with experience living in and working with racial and ethnic minority communities. The Center would research how structural racism affects physical and mental health, develop antiracist public health practices, create interventions, and share findings publicly. The Center would award noncompetitive grants, set up at least three regional centers of excellence located in racial and ethnic minority communities, and create a data clearinghouse with disaggregated data that protects privacy. The bill also directs the CDC to form advisory committees, provide training, consult with Tribal authorities, and publish a report every two years.

Separately, the bill would create a law enforcement violence prevention program within the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. That program would research the public health impacts of law enforcement uses of force, collect and standardize data on police-related deaths and injuries, study factors that correlate with police brutality, fund research and community groups, explore alternatives to law enforcement response, and submit an annual report to Congress.

What it means for you#

• The federal government would create focused research centers and grant programs to study how racism and police violence affect health.
• The CDC would collect and publish more detailed data on health differences by race, ethnicity, language, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, socioeconomic status, and disability, while protecting individual privacy.
• States, localities, Tribal governments, nonprofits, universities, and community groups could apply for grants or cooperative agreements to do research, run regional centers, or develop interventions.
• The bill calls for training public health workers, creating standards for data collection, and consulting with Tribal authorities.

Expenses#

The bill includes an authorization of appropriations for the new Center and for the law enforcement violence prevention program. Each section states that "such sums as may be necessary" are authorized to carry out the activities. No publicly available information on a total dollar amount or official cost estimate is included in the provided text.

Proponents' View#

The bill's sponsors set out goals that include declaring racism a public health crisis, developing the science and practice of antiracism, identifying mechanisms by which racism affects health care and other systems, creating interventions to replace racist mechanisms with equitable structures, and contributing to national and global discussion on racism and health. For police violence, sponsors direct the CDC to study the scope and causes of law enforcement-related death and injury, develop public health interventions, standardize data collection, fund research, and explore nonpolicing responses.

Opponents' View#

No publicly available information.