McDuffie Introduces Legislation to Create a Racial Equity Tool for D.C.

Councilmember Kenyan R. McDuffie Introduces Legislation to Create a Racial Equity Tool for D.C.

Each D.C. Government Agency Would be Required to Use the Racial Equity Tool in Agency Performance Plans by Fiscal Year 2020

Legislation Also Requires D.C. Government to Provide Racial Equity Training for All Employees

Washington, D.C. – Today, Councilmember Kenyan R. McDuffie introduced the Racial Equity Achieves Results Act of 2019 [B23-0038]. The legislation operationalizes racial equity in the District by requiring the Office of Budget and Planning to design and implement a racial equity tool, beginning in fiscal year 2020. Further, it requires the Mayor to include racial equity-related performance measures in the development of an agency’s annual performance plans and to require the Mayor to include an evaluation of the use of the racial equity tool in the annual performance accountability reports. Finally, it requires the development of a racial equity training for all District employees.

“Decades of structural and institutional racism in the District, and to be sure, in America, has created widespread racial inequities, which are pervasive and exist across all indicators for success, including in education, criminal justice, employment, housing, transportation, health, and in business,” Councilmember McDuffie said, “Only by building systems that are intentional in their design to account for implicit bias and systemic inequities, will every District resident truly have the same opportunities to prosper in our society.”

This legislation builds upon Councilmember McDuffie’s work in recent years to advance racial equity in policymaking in the District of Columbia, which include:

• Hosting an upcoming Symposium on Race and Policy on Thursday, January 17, 2019.
• Successfully leading the effort for the Council of the District of Columbia to become a member of the Government Alliance on Racial Equity (GARE), a national network of leaders working to achieve racial equity within and through government.
• Convening a Racial Equity Working Group, consisting of a diverse body of industry and community leaders committed to normalizing conversations about race, operationalizing new policies, eliminating occurrences of racial discrimination, and implementing a city-wide strategy to achieve racial equity in the District of Columbia.
• Facilitating racial equity training for all members and staff of the Council of the District of Columbia.
• Spearheading introduction of the “Sense of the Council on Establishing Race, Equity, and Social Justice Resolution of 2017.”