A proposal for the upcoming Texas legislative session would expand the state’s restrictions on diversity, equity, and inclusion offices to cover most government entities.
Senate Bill 689, filed by State Sen. Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola), and its companion legislation House Bill 1521, filed by State Rep. Stan Gerdes (R-Smithville), would prohibit official DEI offices in government entities and restrict the ability to contract such services out to a third party.
The only exception to the identical measures concerns potential conflicts with federal law.
A DEI office is considered under the legislation as “an office, division, or other unit of a governmental entity” established to influence workforce composition with respect to race, sex, color, or ethnicity.
Implementing differential treatment and conducting trainings or programs on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation is also considered DEI in most cases.
The proposed new Sec. 621.001(E) of the Texas Government Code’s Subtitle A, Title 6 further includes within the definition of DEI:
Promoting, as an official position of the entity, a particular opinion referencing unconscious or implicit bias, cultural appropriation, allyship, transgender ideology, microaggressions, group marginalization, anti-racism, systemic oppression, social justice, intersectionality, neo-pronouns, heteronormativity, disparate impact, gender theory, racial or sexual privilege, or any related formulation of the these concepts.
The measures define “governmental entities” as including the Legislature, the court system, local municipalities, school districts, open-enrollment charter schools, and any “department, commission, board, office, or other agency that is in the executive branch of state government … other than an institution of higher education.”
Hughes’ and Gerdes’ legislation empowers citizens to file complaints with the attorney general’s office if they believe a governmental entity is in violation of the law. Lawsuits related to violations would have to be filed in Travis County or the county where the governmental entity is located if it is outside Austin.
The measures’ filing comes over a year after Senate Bill 17, passed during the 88th Legislature’s regular session, banned DEI offices for Texas’ public universities.
SB 17 additionally prohibits DEI criteria from being used in public university hiring practices and forbids those entities from requiring employees or prospective employees to attend DEI training sessions.
Although SB 17 does not apply to academic instruction, State Sen. Brandon Creighton (R–Conroe), who authored the measure, said earlier this month that plans to expand the DEI ban to university governance are being floated.
“I think we’re definitely looking into governance for how universities work,” stated Creighton. “We’re making sure that they are campuses focused on education and innovation; not on political indoctrination.”
Creighton is chairman of the Senate Education Committee and its subcommittee tasked with focusing on higher education.
The 89th Legislative Session begins January 14.
