Subcommittee Democrats Denounce Republican Attacks on Civil Rights, Freedom, Progress, and Equality
Washington, D.C. (June 26, 2025)— Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Healthcare and Financial Services, led Subcommittee Democrats in denouncing Republicans’ efforts to politicize diversity, equity, and inclusion programs to bolster the Trump Administration’s extremist right-wing agenda.
“The Majority believes diversity is a barrier to excellence, but I believe that it’s, in fact, the key to achieving excellence in America,” Ranking Member Krishnamoorthi asserted in his opening statement. He continued: “Diversity means lowering the barriers so everyone can compete. When we have competition, America benefits. Diversity means we have more competition in our workforce so our employers can perform better. It means more opportunities for small businesses. It means higher quality products and services. And, ultimately, it means lower prices. From consumers to taxpayers to employers, everyone wins when we expand opportunity and lower barriers to competition.”
The hearing included testimony from Dr. Shaun Harper, Ph.D., Provost Professor of Public Policy, Business, and Education, University of Southern California; Dan Lennington, Managing Vice President and Deputy Counsel, Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty; Dr. Judge Glock, Ph.D., Director of Research and Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute; and Dr. Erec Smith, Ph.D., Research Fellow, Cato Institute.
Committee Democrats condemned Republicans’ and the Trump Administration’s broad assault on civil rights, freedom, progress, and equality, and underscored how this backwards and dangerous thinking harms Americans, communities, organizations, and the economy:
- Dr. Harper outlined how diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts are essential to addressing the real costs of inequity that Americans pay for with their lives: “Infant mortality, maternal mortality, diabetes, asthma, COVID-19, heart attacks, strokes, AIDS-related illnesses, and most forms of cancer disproportionately kill Americans of color. Analyses presented in a highly cited W.K. Kellogg Foundation report revealed that closing racial gaps in health, education, and employment would increase America’s GDP by $8 trillion. On their own, health disparities in the United States annually produce $93 billion in excess medical costs and $42 billion in lowered productivity, according to that same Kellogg Foundation Report. Additionally, the economic impact of shortened lifespans among people of color is $175 billion.”
- Ranking Member Krishnamoorthi called out the impact of the Trump Administration’s elimination of the 988 suicide and crisis hotline, which has been crucial for LGBTQI+ youth, and the Subcommittee’s failure to address the fact that Trump’s Big, Ugly Bill makes the biggest cut to Medicaid in history.
- Rep. Wesley Bell highlighted the history of racism and the ways it continues to hold our country back, including through disparities in housing, health care, and criminal justice for people of color in America.
- Rep. Lateefah Simon denounced the Trump Administration’s prioritization of political loyalty over merit, as well as its gutting of civil rights offices and purge of more than 275,000 federal workers through mass terminations and unlawful firings.
- Rep. Simon also called extremist Republicans out for leading a coordinated effort to push us back to an America segregated by race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability.
- Rep. Emily Randall explained that while Republicans wage war on diversity, equity, and inclusion and refer to it as “reverse racism,” women of color are suffering due to much higher maternal mortality rates.
Meanwhile, the Republicans’ “expert” witnesses could not answer basic questions from Democratic Members and made false claims:
- Republican witnesses and Members made numerous statements about the law being “color-blind,” but Supreme Court justices throughout the years have explained how a color-blind Constitution does not mean that race cannot be a consideration:
- In Regents v. Bakke (1978), Justices William J. Brennan Jr., Byron White, Thurgood Marshall, and Harry Blackmun wrote a concurring opinion objecting to the term “color blind,” writing that “we cannot ... let color blindness become myopia which masks the reality that many ‘created equal’ have been treated within our lifetimes as inferior both by the law and by their fellow citizens.”
- Even Justice Clarence Thomas once wrote that “the color-blind Constitution does not bar the government from taking measures to remedy past state-sponsored discrimination—indeed, it requires that such measures be taken in certain circumstances,” in his concurring opinion to PICS v. Seattle (2007).
- In Regents v. Bakke (1978), Justices William J. Brennan Jr., Byron White, Thurgood Marshall, and Harry Blackmun wrote a concurring opinion objecting to the term “color blind,” writing that “we cannot ... let color blindness become myopia which masks the reality that many ‘created equal’ have been treated within our lifetimes as inferior both by the law and by their fellow citizens.”
In response to questions from Ranking Member Krishnamoorthi and Rep. Bell, Republican witnesses admitted that they were “not aware” of the 988 hotline and did not know that the GI bill—a bridge to middle-class prosperity for many Americans—originally excluded 1.2 million Black veterans.
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