Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress House Bill HR119 Compare Versions

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Old	New	Differences
1	1	IV
2	2	119THCONGRESS
3	3	1
4	4	STSESSION H. RES. 119
5	5	Declaring racism a public health crisis.
6	6	IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
7	7	FEBRUARY6, 2025
8	8	Mrs. H
9	9	AYES(for herself, Mrs. RAMIREZ, Mrs. WATSONCOLEMAN, Ms. NOR-
10	10	TON, Ms. BROWN, Mrs. CHERFILUS-MCCORMICK, Mr. CARSON, Mr.
11	11	J
12	12	ACKSONof Illinois, Ms. TLAIB, Mrs. MCIVER, and Mr. JOHNSONof
13	13	Georgia) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the
14	14	Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee
15	15	on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the
16	16	Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within
17	17	the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
18	18	RESOLUTION
19	19	Declaring racism a public health crisis.
20	20	Whereas a public health crisis is an issue—
21	21	(1) that affects many people, is a threat to the pub-
22	22	lic, and is ongoing;
23	23	(2) that is unfairly distributed among different pop-
24	24	ulations, disproportionately impacting health outcomes,
25	25	access to health care, and life expectancy;
26	26	(3) the effects of which could be reduced by preven-
27	27	tive measures; and
28	28	(4) for which those preventive measures are not yet
29	29	in place;
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32	32	•HRES 119 IH
33	33	Whereas public health experts agree that significant racial in-
34	34	equities exist in the prevalence, severity, and mortality
35	35	rates of various health conditions in the United States;
36	36	Whereas examples of significant racial inequities include
37	37	that—
38	38	(1) life expectancies for Black, American Indian,
39	39	and Alaska Native people in the United States are 4 to
40	40	10 years lower than those of non-Hispanic White people
41	41	in the United States;
42	42	(2) Black, American Indian, and Alaska Native
43	43	women are 2 to 4 times more likely than White women
44	44	to suffer severe maternal morbidity and have the highest
45	45	rates of pregnancy-related mortality;
46	46	(3) Black, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, Amer-
47	47	ican Indian, and Alaska Native infants are 2
48	48	1
49	49	⁄2to 3
50	50	times more likely to die than White infants;
51	51	(4) the Black infant mortality rate in the United
52	52	States is higher than the infant mortality rates recorded
53	53	in 27 of the 36 democratic countries with market-based
54	54	economies that are members of the Organisation for Eco-
55	55	nomic Co-operation and Development;
56	56	(5) Hispanic women have a 51 percent higher inci-
57	57	dence, and are 30 percent more likely to die from, cer-
58	58	vical cancer compared to non-Hispanic White women;
59	59	(6) Asian Americans are the only racial group in the
60	60	United States who experience cancer as the leading cause
61	61	of death and have the highest rates of lung cancer among
62	62	never-smoking women;
63	63	(7) Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders are 2.5-
64	64	times more likely to die from diabetes than non-Hispanic
65	65	White women;
66	66	(8) Native Hawaiians suffer from coronary heart
67	67	disease, stroke, heart failure, cancer, and diabetes at a 3
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71	71	times greater rate than other ethnic populations in Ha-
72	72	waii, and become afflicted with those diseases a decade
73	73	earlier in their lives compared with other ethnic popu-
74	74	lations; and
75	75	(9) during the COVID–19 pandemic, Black, Latino,
76	76	Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, and
77	77	Native American communities experienced disproportion-
78	78	ately high rates of COVID–19 infection, hospitalization,
79	79	and mortality compared to the White population of the
80	80	United States;
81	81	Whereas inequities in health outcomes are exacerbated for
82	82	people of color who are LGBTQIA+;
83	83	Whereas inequities in health outcomes are exacerbated for
84	84	people of color who have disabilities;
85	85	Whereas, historically, explanations for health inequities have
86	86	focused on false genetic science, such as eugenics;
87	87	Whereas, historically, explanations for health inequities have
88	88	focused on incomplete social scientific analyses that nar-
89	89	rowly focus on individual behavior to highlight ostensible
90	90	deficiencies within racial and ethnic minority groups;
91	91	Whereas modern public health officials recognize the broader
92	92	social context in which health inequities emerge and ac-
93	93	knowledge the impact of historical and contemporary rac-
94	94	ism on health;
95	95	Whereas racism is recognized in modern public health dis-
96	96	course as 1 of many social determinants of health,
97	97	which—
98	98	(1) are a broad range of nonmedical factors that can
99	99	enhance or hinder quality of life and influence health out-
100	100	comes;
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104	104	(2) are the conditions in which people are born,
105	105	grow, work, live, and age, and include the wider set of
106	106	forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life;
107	107	(3) include factors such as housing, employment,
108	108	education, health care, food, transportation, social sup-
109	109	port, poverty, crime, violence, segregation, and environ-
110	110	mental toxins;
111	111	(4) are linked to a lack of opportunity and resources
112	112	to protect, improve, and maintain health; and
113	113	(5) taken together, create health inequities that stem
114	114	from unfair and unjust systems, policies, and practices,
115	115	and limit access to the opportunities and resources need-
116	116	ed to live the healthiest life possible;
117	117	Whereas, since its founding, the United States has had a
118	118	longstanding history and legacy of racism, mistreatment,
119	119	and discrimination that has perpetuated health inequities
120	120	for members of racial and ethnic minority groups;
121	121	Whereas that history and legacy of racism, mistreatment, and
122	122	discrimination includes—
123	123	(1) the immoral paradox of freedom and slavery,
124	124	which is an atrocity that can be traced throughout the
125	125	history of the United States, as African Americans lived
126	126	under the oppressive institution of slavery from 1619
127	127	through 1865, endured the practices and laws of segrega-
128	128	tion during the Jim Crow era, and continue to face the
129	129	ramifications of systemic racism through unjust and dis-
130	130	criminatory structures and policies;
131	131	(2) the failure of the United States to carry out the
132	132	responsibilities and promises made in more than 370
133	133	treaties ratified with sovereign indigenous communities,
134	134	including American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Ha-
135	135	waiians, and Pacific Islanders, as made evident by the
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138	138	•HRES 119 IH
139	139	chronic and pervasive underfunding of the Indian Health
140	140	Service and Native Hawaiian health care, the vast health
141	141	and socioeconomic inequities faced by American Indian
142	142	and Alaska Native people, and the inaccessibility of many
143	143	Federal public health and social programs in Native
144	144	American communities;
145	145	(3) the enactment of immigration laws in the United
146	146	States that scapegoated Asians, separated families, and
147	147	branded Asians as perpetual outsiders, such as—
148	148	(A) the Act entitled ‘‘An Act supplementary to
149	149	the Acts in relation to immigration’’, approved
150	150	March 3, 1875 (commonly known as the ‘‘Page Act
151	151	of 1875’’) (18 Stat. 477, chapter 141), which effec-
152	152	tively prohibited the entry of East Asian women into
153	153	the United States;
154	154	(B) the Act entitled ‘‘An Act to execute certain
155	155	treaty stipulations relating to Chinese’’, approved
156	156	May 6, 1882 (commonly known as the ‘‘Chinese Ex-
157	157	clusion Act’’) (22 Stat. 58, chapter 126), which
158	158	banned thousands of Chinese-born laborers, who
159	159	were essential in the completion of the trans-
160	160	continental railroad and development of the West
161	161	Coast of the United States; and
162	162	(C) the Act entitled ‘‘An Act to regulate the im-
163	163	migration of aliens to, and the residence of aliens in,
164	164	the United States’’, approved February 5, 1917
165	165	(commonly known as the ‘‘Immigration Act of
166	166	1917’’) (39 Stat. 874, chapter 29), which barred all
167	167	immigrants from the ‘‘Asiatic zone’’ and prevented
168	168	the migration of individuals from South Asia, South-
169	169	east Asia, and East Asia;
170	170	(4) during the Great Depression Era, the deporta-
171	171	tion of approximately 1,800,000 individuals based on
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174	174	•HRES 119 IH
175	175	their Mexican ethnic identity, although approximately 60
176	176	percent of the deported individuals were citizens of the
177	177	United States, and the targeting of individuals of Mexi-
178	178	can descent for ‘‘repatriation’’ due to scapegoating ef-
179	179	forts, which blamed those individuals for ‘‘stealing’’ jobs
180	180	from ‘‘real’’ Americans; and
181	181	(5) in 1942, the issuance of Executive Order 9066
182	182	which began the forced evacuation and detention of Japa-
183	183	nese American West Coast residents, placing 70,000 citi-
184	184	zens of the United States into ‘‘relocation centers’’;
185	185	Whereas, in 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson established
186	186	the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders,
187	187	which concluded that White racism is responsible for the
188	188	pervasive discrimination and segregation in employment,
189	189	education, and housing, causing deepened racial division
190	190	and the continued exclusion of Black communities from
191	191	the benefits of economic progress;
192	192	Whereas overt racism was embedded in the development of
193	193	medical science and medical training during the 18th,
194	194	19th, and 20th centuries, causing disproportionate phys-
195	195	ical and psychological harm to members of racial and
196	196	ethnic minority groups, including—
197	197	(1) the unethical practices and abuses experienced
198	198	by Black patients and research participants, such as the
199	199	Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male,
200	200	which serve as the foundation for the mistrust the Black
201	201	community has for the medical system; and
202	202	(2) the egregiously unethical and cruel treatment of
203	203	enslaved Black women who were forced to be the subject
204	204	of insidious medical experiments to advance modern gyn-
205	205	ecology, including those perpetuated by the so-called ‘‘fa-
206	206	ther of gynecology’’, J. Marion Sims;
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210	210	Whereas structural racism cemented historical racial and eth-
211	211	nic inequities in access to resources and opportunities,
212	212	contributing to worse health outcomes;
213	213	Whereas examples of structural racism include—
214	214	(1) before the enactment of the Medicare program,
215	215	the United States health care system was highly seg-
216	216	regated, and, as late as the mid-1960s, hospitals, clinics,
217	217	and doctors’ offices throughout the northern and south-
218	218	ern United States complied with Jim Crow laws and were
219	219	completely segregated by race, leaving Black communities
220	220	with little to no access to health care services;
221	221	(2) the landmark case Simkins v. Moses H. Cone
222	222	Memorial Hospital, 323 F.2d 959 (4th Cir. 1963), which
223	223	challenged the use of public funds by the Federal Govern-
224	224	ment to expand, support, and sustain segregated hospital
225	225	care and provided justification for title VI of the Civil
226	226	Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000d et seq.) and the
227	227	Medicare hospital certification program by establishing
228	228	Medicare hospital racial integration guidelines that ap-
229	229	plied to every hospital that participated in the Federal
230	230	program;
231	231	(3) that Pacific Islanders from the Freely Associated
232	232	States experience unique health inequities resulting from
233	233	United States nuclear weapons tests on their home is-
234	234	lands while they have been categorically denied access to
235	235	Medicaid and other Federal health benefits;
236	236	(4) that language minorities, including Spanish-
237	237	speaking, Chinese-speaking, and Tagalog-speaking people
238	238	in the United States, were not assured nondiscriminatory
239	239	access to federally funded services, including health serv-
240	240	ices, until the signing of Executive Order 13166 (42
241	241	U.S.C. 2000d–1 note; relating to improving access to
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245	245	services for persons with limited English proficiency) in
246	246	2000;
247	247	(5) that the COVID–19 pandemic exacerbated eco-
248	248	nomic, health, housing, and food security barriers for
249	249	Black, Latino, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific
250	250	Islander, and Native American households, which already
251	251	suffer from disproportionately higher rates of food inse-
252	252	curity; and
253	253	(6) that members of the Black, Native American,
254	254	Alaska Native, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific
255	255	Islander, and Latino communities are disproportionately
256	256	impacted by the criminal justice and immigration en-
257	257	forcement systems and face a higher risk of contracting
258	258	COVID–19 within prison populations and detention cen-
259	259	ters due to the over-incarceration of members of those
260	260	communities;
261	261	Whereas subtle or implicit racism in all sectors of the medical
262	262	service profession continues to cause disproportionate
263	263	physical and psychological harm to members of racial and
264	264	ethnic minority groups;
265	265	Whereas examples of subtle or implicit racism in the medical
266	266	service profession include that—
267	267	(1) the history and persistence of racist and nonsci-
268	268	entific medical beliefs, which are associated with ongoing
269	269	racial inequities in treatment and health outcomes;
270	270	(2) implicit racial and ethnic biases within the
271	271	health care system, which have an explicit impact on the
272	272	quality of care experienced by members of racial and eth-
273	273	nic minority groups, such as the undertreatment of pain
274	274	in Black patients;
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278	278	(3) nearly
279	279	1
280	280	⁄5of Latino Americans avoid medical
281	281	care due to concern about being discriminated against or
282	282	treated poorly;
283	283	(4) the United States health care system and other
284	284	economic and social structures remain fraught with bi-
285	285	ases based on race, ethnicity, sex (including sexual ori-
286	286	entation and gender identity), and class that lead to
287	287	health inequities;
288	288	(5) women of color, including Black, Native Amer-
289	289	ican, Latina, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pa-
290	290	cific Islander women, have faced and continue to face at-
291	291	tacks on their prenatal, maternal, and reproductive
292	292	health and rights; and
293	293	(6) through the early 1980s, physicians routinely
294	294	sterilized members of racial and ethnic minority groups,
295	295	specifically American Indian and Alaska Native women
296	296	(with
297	297	1
298	298	⁄4of childbearing-aged American Indian and Alas-
299	299	ka Native women being sterilized by the Indian Health
300	300	Service) and African-American and Latina women, per-
301	301	forming excessive and medically unnecessary procedures
302	302	without their informed consent;
303	303	Whereas structural racism perpetuates racial and ethnic in-
304	304	equities in the social determinants of health, which pro-
305	305	duces unintended negative health outcomes for members
306	306	of racial and ethnic minority groups;
307	307	Whereas examples of that structural racism include—
308	308	(1) that there are fewer pharmacies, medical prac-
309	309	tices, and hospitals in predominantly Black and Latino
310	310	neighborhoods, compared to White or more diverse neigh-
311	311	borhoods;
312	312	(2) that environmental hazards, such as toxic waste
313	313	facilities, garbage dumps, and other sources of airborne
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317	317	pollutants, are disproportionately located in predomi-
318	318	nantly Black, Latino, Asian American, Native Hawaiian,
319	319	Pacific Islander, and low-income communities, resulting
320	320	in poor air quality conditions, which can increase the
321	321	likelihood of chronic respiratory illness and premature
322	322	death from particle pollution;
323	323	(3) that employed Black adults are 10 percent less
324	324	likely to have employer-sponsored health insurance than
325	325	employed White adults because of racial segregation in
326	326	occupation sectors and the types of organizations in
327	327	which they work;
328	328	(4) that 1 in 4 American Indian and Alaska Native
329	329	people lack health insurance and that Native Hawaiians,
330	330	Pacific Islanders, and certain groups of nonelderly Asian
331	331	American adults have lower levels of insurance than
332	332	White adults;
333	333	(5) that several States with higher percentages of
334	334	Black, Latino, American Indian, and Alaska Native pop-
335	335	ulations have not expanded their Medicaid programs, con-
336	336	tinuing to disenfranchise minority communities from ac-
337	337	cess to health care as of the date of adoption of this reso-
338	338	lution;
339	339	(6) discriminatory housing practices, such as red-
340	340	lining, which have, for decades, systemically excluded
341	341	members of racial and ethnic minority groups from hous-
342	342	ing by robbing them of capital in the form of low-cost,
343	343	stable mortgages and opportunities to build wealth, and
344	344	the use of financial power by the Federal Government to
345	345	segregate renters in public housing;
346	346	(7) social inequities, such as differing access to qual-
347	347	ity health care, healthy food and safe drinking water,
348	348	safe and affordable neighborhoods, education, job secu-
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352	352	rity, and reliable transportation, which affect health risks
353	353	and outcomes;
354	354	(8) exclusionary disciplinary practices (such as de-
355	355	tention and suspension) in primary education and even
356	356	early education settings, which disproportionately affect
357	357	children from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds,
358	358	particularly Black children; and
359	359	(9) that, as much as 60 percent of the health of a
360	360	person in the United States can be determined by their
361	361	ZIP Code;
362	362	Whereas structural racism perpetuates ongoing knowledge
363	363	gaps in data, research, and development, which produces
364	364	unintended negative health outcomes for members of ra-
365	365	cial and ethnic minority groups;
366	366	Whereas examples of that structural racism include that—
367	367	(1) most participants in clinical trials are White, so
368	368	there is insufficient data to develop evidence-based rec-
369	369	ommendations for people from racial and ethnic minority
370	370	groups;
371	371	(2) medical research equipment and medical devices
372	372	are typically developed by majority-White teams and
373	373	therefore can have racial blind spots unintentionally built
374	374	into their design, rendering them less effective for people
375	375	from racial and ethnic minority groups, such as—
376	376	(A) electroencephalogram electrodes used in
377	377	neuroimaging research do not collect reliable data
378	378	when used on scalps with thick, curly hair; and
379	379	(B) pulse oximeters produce less accurate oxy-
380	380	gen saturation readings when used on fingertips
381	381	with darker skin;
382	382	(3) a lack of images depicting darker skin in medical
383	383	textbooks, literature, and journals contributes to higher
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387	387	rates of underdiagnosis or misdiagnosis in patients with
388	388	darker skin; and
389	389	(4) many health-related studies fail to include data
390	390	on American Indians, Alaska Natives, Asian Americans,
391	391	Native Hawaiians, or Pacific Islanders, or do not
392	392	disaggregate data among those groups, leading to their
393	393	invisibility in health data and unjust resource allocation
394	394	and policies;
395	395	Whereas racism produces unjust outcomes and treatment for
396	396	members of racial and ethnic minority groups, with such
397	397	negative experiences serving as stressors that over time
398	398	have a negative impact on physical health (leading, for
399	399	example, to high blood pressure or hypertension) and
400	400	mental health (leading, for example, to anxiety or depres-
401	401	sion);
402	402	Whereas there is evidence that racial and ethnic minority
403	403	groups continue to face discrimination in the United
404	404	States, examples of which include that—
405	405	(1) social scientists have documented racial micro-
406	406	aggressions in contemporary United States society, in-
407	407	cluding—
408	408	(A) assumptions that members of racial and
409	409	ethnic minority groups are not citizens of the United
410	410	States;
411	411	(B) assumptions of lesser intelligence;
412	412	(C) statements that convey color-blindness or
413	413	denial of the importance of race;
414	414	(D) assumptions of criminality or dangerous-
415	415	ness;
416	416	(E) denial of individual racism;
417	417	(F) promotion of the myth of meritocracy;
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421	421	(G) assumptions that the cultural background
422	422	and communication styles of an individual are patho-
423	423	logical;
424	424	(H) treatment as a second-class citizen; and
425	425	(I) environmental messages of being unwelcome
426	426	or devalued;
427	427	(2) compared to White Americans, Black Americans
428	428	are 5 times more likely to report experiencing discrimina-
429	429	tion when interacting with the police, Hispanic or Latino
430	430	Americans and Native Americans are nearly 3 times as
431	431	likely, and Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pa-
432	432	cific Islanders are nearly twice as likely;
433	433	(3) 42 percent of employees in the United States
434	434	have experienced or witnessed racism in the workplace;
435	435	(4) Muslims, South Asians, and Sikhs were unjustly
436	436	targeted for profiling, surveillance, arrest, discrimination,
437	437	harassment, assault, and murder after 9/11;
438	438	(5) xenophobic rhetoric, including anti-immigrant
439	439	rhetoric and the scapegoating of people of East Asian
440	440	and Southeast Asian descent for the COVID–19 pan-
441	441	demic, resulted in a surge of hate against Asian Ameri-
442	442	cans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders, including
443	443	increased harassment, discrimination, bullying, van-
444	444	dalism, and assault;
445	445	(6) nearly
446	446	1
447	447	⁄2of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians,
448	448	and Pacific Islanders throughout the United States have
449	449	experienced discrimination or unfair treatment that may
450	450	be illegal and the majority of victims of discrimination
451	451	name race or related characteristics as the reason for the
452	452	discrimination; and
453	453	(7) more than 50 percent of Hispanic or Latino
454	454	adults experience at least 1 form of discrimination due to
455	455	their racial or ethnic heritage, such as being treated as
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459	459	if they were not smart, criticized for speaking Spanish,
460	460	told to return to their country, called offensive names, or
461	461	unfairly stopped by the police;
462	462	Whereas Black people in the United States experience overt
463	463	and direct forms of violence that, when not fatal, can
464	464	cause severe physical or psychological harm;
465	465	Whereas examples of such forms of violence include—
466	466	(1) that Black people are confronted and threatened
467	467	by armed citizens while performing everyday tasks, such
468	468	as jogging in neighborhoods, driving, or playing in a
469	469	park;
470	470	(2) that Black people are 3 times more likely to be
471	471	killed by police than White people, and police violence is
472	472	the sixth leading cause of death for young Black men;
473	473	(3) the killings of Tamir Rice, Ahmaud Arbery,
474	474	Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Elijah McClain, Jayland
475	475	Walker, Jeenan Anderson, Timothy McCree Johnson,
476	476	Jordan Neely, and countless other Black Americans by
477	477	law enforcement;
478	478	(4) that it took the United States 66 years after the
479	479	senseless and brutal murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till
480	480	to make lynching a Federal crime;
481	481	(5) that, since 2015, mass shootings around the
482	482	country, such as in Buffalo, New York, and Charleston,
483	483	South Carolina, serve as reminders of the unresolved his-
484	484	tory of racism in the United States and highlight the
485	485	threats Black people must take into consideration when
486	486	going about their daily lives, both when outside their
487	487	communities and within those communities; and
488	488	(6) the threat of brutality and violence adversely im-
489	489	pacting mental health among Black communities;
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492	492	•HRES 119 IH
493	493	Whereas American Indians and Alaska Natives experience
494	494	historical trauma, systemic oppression, and cultural geno-
495	495	cide that, even when not fatal, can cause severe physical
496	496	or psychological harm;
497	497	Whereas examples of such forms of violence include—
498	498	(1) forced relocation, termination, and assimilation
499	499	policies, such as boarding schools, that contributed to
500	500	health disparities and legacies of trauma inflicted on in-
501	501	digenous people;
502	502	(2) the Army attempting cultural genocide by insti-
503	503	gating numerous massacres, including the mass execution
504	504	of 38 Dakota men in Minnesota, and the murder of 300
505	505	Lakota people at the Battle of Wounded Knee, to eradi-
506	506	cate American Indians and Alaska Natives;
507	507	(3) murder being the third leading cause of death
508	508	for Native women, and
509	509	4
510	510	⁄5of indigenous women experi-
511	511	encing violence in their lifetime;
512	512	(4) that, since 2016, there have been 5,712 cases of
513	513	missing and murdered indigenous women and people
514	514	across the United States, including 506 cases in 71
515	515	urban cities and 153 cases missing from law enforcement
516	516	databases, with those missing cases likely undercounting
517	517	the actual number of cases due to the underreporting of
518	518	cases within American Indian and Alaska Native commu-
519	519	nities;
520	520	(5) that the overall death rate from suicide among
521	521	American Indians and Alaska Natives is 20 percent high-
522	522	er compared to non-Hispanic White populations; and
523	523	(6) cycles of violence that have overburdened indige-
524	524	nous communities to respond to increased levels of vio-
525	525	lence, including gender-based violence, human trafficking,
526	526	suicide, and homicide with minimal resources;
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529	529	•HRES 119 IH
530	530	Whereas American Indian, Alaska Natives, Hispanics or
531	531	Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific
532	532	Islanders experience racially motivated kidnapping, mur-
533	533	ders, and mass violence, such as shootings in Oak Creek,
534	534	Wisconsin, El Paso and Allen, Texas, Atlanta, Georgia,
535	535	and Indianapolis, Indiana, that, even when not fatal, can
536	536	cause severe physical or psychological harm;
537	537	Whereas, throughout the history of the United States, mem-
538	538	bers of racial and ethnic minority groups have been at
539	539	the forefront of civil rights movements for essential free-
540	540	doms, human rights, and equal protection for
541	541	marginalized groups and continue to fight for racial, en-
542	542	vironmental, and economic justice today;
543	543	Whereas racial inequities in health continue to persist be-
544	544	cause of historical and contemporary racism;
545	545	Whereas public health experts agree that racism meets the
546	546	criteria of a public health crisis because—
547	547	(1) the condition affects many people, is seen as a
548	548	threat to the public, and is continuing to increase;
549	549	(2) the condition is distributed unfairly;
550	550	(3) preventive measures could reduce the effects of
551	551	the condition; and
552	552	(4) those preventive measures are not yet in place;
553	553	Whereas the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—
554	554	(1) declared racism a serious threat to public health;
555	555	and
556	556	(2) acknowledged the need for additional research
557	557	and investments to address that serious threat;
558	558	Whereas a Federal public health crisis declaration proclaims
559	559	racism as a pervasive health issue and alerts the people
560	560	of the United States to the need to enact immediate and
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563	563	•HRES 119 IH
564	564	effective cross-governmental efforts to address the root
565	565	causes of structural racism and the downstream impacts
566	566	of that racism; and
567	567	Whereas such a declaration requires the response of govern-
568	568	ments to engage significant resources to empower the
569	569	communities that are impacted: Now, therefore, be it
570	570	Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 1
571	571	(1) supports the resolutions drafted, introduced, 2
572	572	and adopted by cities and localities across the 3
573	573	United States declaring racism a public health crisis; 4
574	574	(2) declares racism a public health crisis in the 5
575	575	United States; 6
576	576	(3) commits to— 7
577	577	(A) establishing a nationwide strategy to 8
578	578	address health disparities and inequities across 9
579	579	all sectors in society; 10
580	580	(B) dismantling systemic practices and 11
581	581	policies that perpetuate racism; 12
582	582	(C) advancing reforms to address years of 13
583	583	neglectful and apathetic policies that have led 14
584	584	to poor health outcomes for members of racial 15
585	585	and ethnic minority groups; and 16
586	586	(D) promoting efforts to address the social 17
587	587	determinants of health for all racial and ethnic 18
588	588	minority groups in the United States; and 19
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591	591	•HRES 119 IH
592	592	(4) places a charge on the people of the United 1
593	593	States to move forward with urgency to ensure that 2
594	594	the United States stands firmly in honoring its 3
595	595	moral purpose of advancing the self-evident truths 4
596	596	that all people are created equal, that they are en-5
597	597	dowed with certain unalienable rights, and that 6
598	598	among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of hap-7
599	599	piness. 8
600	600	Æ
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