Iowa Senate approves bill to ban cities and counties from having DEI offices
The Iowa Senate approved a bill Tuesday that would make it illegal for local governments to create or maintain diversity, equity and inclusion offices.
The Iowa Senate approved a bill Tuesday that would make it illegal for local governments to create or maintain diversity, equity and inclusion offices.
The Iowa Senate approved a bill Tuesday that would make it illegal for local governments to create or maintain diversity, equity and inclusion offices.
The Iowa Senate approved a bill Tuesday that would make it illegal for local governments to create or maintain diversity, equity and inclusion offices.
would also ban cities and counties from having staff perform duties of a DEI office, from requiring DEI statements or from using preferential treatments based on race, sex or ethnicity.
In its definition of diversity, equity and inclusion, the bill includes "any procedures referencing implicit bias, cultural appropriation, allyship, transgender ideology, microaggressions, group marginalization, antiracism, systemic oppression, social justice" and more.
Sen. Cherielynn Westrich (R-Ottumwa), who managed the bill on the Senate floor, said it will make sure that cities and counties hire the most qualified people without giving preferential treatment based on race, gender or sexual orientation.
"The DEI movement is not about a sincere desire to make local government more diverse, more fair, more inclusive," Westrich said. "Equal rights based on merit, talent, skill and qualifications is what we should have in our local government."
Opponents of the bill said it's too broad and vague. They say it's not clear whether cities and counties could still have events that celebrate race, gender or sexual orientation.
"A vote for this bill today will divide Iowa further, hurting our workforce and our economic development," Sen. Molly Donahue (D-Cedar Rapids) said. "Because it is not just our differences that divide us. It is the inability to recognize, accept and celebrate those differences."
The bill still needs approval in the Iowa House to go to the governor's desk.
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