Iowa Senate lawmakers advanced a bill to ban all forms of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in local governments that are not required by anti-discrimination laws Monday.
Senate Study Bill 1150 would prohibit all DEI positions, training, and policies in Iowa cities and counties.
The legislation also includes protections against hiring a third party to perform duties of a DEI office and prohibits requiring a person to provide a DEI statement or giving preferential consideration to a person who provides a DEI statement.
The bill specifies that DEI includes “any effort to manipulate or otherwise influence the composition” of a county or city board, council, office, or employee positions “with reference to race, sex, color, or ethnicity apart from ensuring color blind and sex-neutral hiring in accordance with state and federal anti-discrimination law.”
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This follows President Donald Trump’s pursuit to end DEI programs, including sweeping executive orders seeking to end government support for programs promoting DEI.
A federal judge blocked Trump’s attempt on Friday, granting a preliminary injunction blocking the administration from terminating or changing federal contracts they consider equity-related.
The only Democrat on the panel of lawmakers, Iowa Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, opposed the legislation. He said the bill will deny necessary training to relate to diverse communities.
He said practically, the bill would undermine the ability of city and county services to assist their populations.
“Governments are service businesses. They serve all members of the locality, the county or the city, and they’re supposed to be able to communicate with them in a way that is facilitating of delivering those services,” Quirmback said. “You can’t deliver services if you can’t communicate effectively with the people that you’re serving.”
Iowa Sens. Cherielynn Westrich, R-Ottumwa, and Dave Sires, R-Cedar Falls, moved the legislation forward.
Sires said “to fall back” on DEI is wrong, and he wants everything to be merit-based.
“I want people to work hard, and I want it only to be on how hard they’ve worked and their merit and how smart they are, and that’s just the way I’ve always felt about the world,” he said.
Many Iowans who spoke during public comment advocated against the bill.
Hadley Harvey, a senior at Roosevelt High School in Des Moines, said the legislation diminished the value of knowledge, understanding, and respect.
Harvey said DEI helps people build empathy and understanding for another person who is in a different position or has a different background.
Harvey said DEI helps us consider how other people’s situations differ from our own, which is critical in shaping how we support each other.
“We rely on one another. No matter what you believe, we do, and it’s important that no matter who you are, no matter what you look like, your background or anything that we are exhibiting empathy and love and support for one another because without that, our society cannot prosper economically, socially, and anything else,” Harvey said.
Scott Foens of Marion opposed the bill and said his qualms are not related to DEI but that the legislation doesn’t do anything to help Iowa families.
“This legislation does nothing to reduce the cost of a dozen eggs, which hit $6 at Aldi,” he said. “This legislation does nothing to reduce the cost of gasoline, which was $3.19 as I drove through Marshalltown. The legislation does nothing to resolve the issue of child care that so many Iowan families face.”
Foens said these issues — rising cost of groceries, gas, and child care affordability — are what lawmakers should be spending time and energy on.
“Let’s worry about those things which impact positively every single life in here, including your own,” he said. “Because I know you guys buy eggs, too.”
Keenan Crow, lobbyist for One Iowa, said they are firmly opposed to any efforts to erase DEI, and this bill in particular goes further than people may realize. Crow said February is Black History Month, and under this bill, cities would not be able to celebrate.
Crow also emphasized a display of white supremacy on Saturday, during which roughly a dozen members of Patriot Front, a white supremacist group, marched in front of the Iowa Capitol building and through Des Moines’ East Village.
Carrying colony flags and banners from the group, the masked individuals chanted things such as “reclaim America” as they marched.
“When we have masked racists marching down in front of our Capitol and saying that they only want white people involved in our government, I think that’s the perfect time to celebrate Black History Month,” Crow said. “I think that’s the perfect time to promulgate trainings based on race or ethnicity.”