Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress Senate Bill SR67 Compare Versions

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Old	New	Differences
1	1	III
2	2	119THCONGRESS
3	3	1
4	4	STSESSION S. RES. 67
5	5	Declaring racism a public health crisis.
6	6	IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
7	7	FEBRUARY6 (legislative day, FEBRUARY5), 2025
8	8	Mr. B
9	9	OOKER(for himself, Mr. PADILLA, Ms. HIRONO, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Mr.
10	10	K
11	11	IM, Ms. BALDWIN, and Mr. WYDEN) submitted the following resolution;
12	12	which was referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and
13	13	Pensions
14	14	RESOLUTION
15	15	Declaring racism a public health crisis.
16	16	Whereas a public health crisis is an issue—
17	17	(1) that affects many people, is a threat to the pub-
18	18	lic, and is ongoing;
19	19	(2) that is unfairly distributed among different pop-
20	20	ulations, disproportionately impacting health outcomes,
21	21	access to health care, and life expectancy;
22	22	(3) the effects of which could be reduced by preven-
23	23	tive measures; and
24	24	(4) for which those preventive measures are not yet
25	25	in place;
26	26	Whereas public health experts agree that significant racial in-
27	27	equities exist in the prevalence, severity, and mortality
28	28	rates of various health conditions in the United States;
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31	31	•SRES 67 IS
32	32	Whereas examples of significant racial inequities include
33	33	that—
34	34	(1) life expectancies for Black, American Indian,
35	35	and Alaska Native people in the United States are 4 to
36	36	10 years lower than those of non-Hispanic White people
37	37	in the United States;
38	38	(2) Black, American Indian, and Alaska Native
39	39	women are 2 to 4 times more likely than White women
40	40	to suffer severe maternal morbidity and have the highest
41	41	rates of pregnancy-related mortality;
42	42	(3) Black, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, Amer-
43	43	ican Indian, and Alaska Native infants are 2
44	44	1
45	45	⁄2to 3
46	46	times more likely to die than White infants;
47	47	(4) the Black infant mortality rate in the United
48	48	States is higher than the infant mortality rates recorded
49	49	in 27 of the 36 democratic countries with market-based
50	50	economies that are members of the Organization for Eco-
51	51	nomic Co-operation and Development;
52	52	(5) Hispanic women have a 51 percent higher inci-
53	53	dence, and are 30 percent more likely to die from, cer-
54	54	vical cancer compared to non-Hispanic White women;
55	55	(6) Asian Americans are the only racial group in the
56	56	United States who experience cancer as the leading cause
57	57	of death and have the highest rates of lung cancer among
58	58	never-smoking women;
59	59	(7) Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders are 2.5-
60	60	times more likely to die from diabetes than non-Hispanic
61	61	White women;
62	62	(8) Native Hawaiians suffer from coronary heart
63	63	disease, stroke, heart failure, cancer, and diabetes at a 3
64	64	times greater rate than other ethnic populations in Ha-
65	65	waii, and become afflicted with those diseases a decade
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68	68	•SRES 67 IS
69	69	earlier in their lives compared with other ethnic popu-
70	70	lations; and
71	71	(9) during the COVID–19 pandemic, Black, His-
72	72	panic or Latino, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pa-
73	73	cific Islander, and Native American communities experi-
74	74	enced disproportionately high rates of COVID–19 infec-
75	75	tion, hospitalization, and mortality compared to the
76	76	White population of the United States;
77	77	Whereas inequities in health outcomes are exacerbated for
78	78	people of color who are LGBTQIA+;
79	79	Whereas inequities in health outcomes are exacerbated for
80	80	people of color who have disabilities;
81	81	Whereas, historically, explanations for health inequities have
82	82	focused on false genetic science, such as eugenics;
83	83	Whereas, historically, explanations for health inequities have
84	84	focused on incomplete social scientific analyses that nar-
85	85	rowly focus on individual behavior to highlight ostensible
86	86	deficiencies within racial and ethnic minority groups;
87	87	Whereas modern public health officials recognize the broader
88	88	social context in which health inequities emerge and ac-
89	89	knowledge the impact of historical and contemporary rac-
90	90	ism on health;
91	91	Whereas racism is recognized in modern public health dis-
92	92	course as 1 of many social determinants of health,
93	93	which—
94	94	(1) are a broad range of nonmedical factors that can
95	95	enhance or hinder quality of life and influence health out-
96	96	comes;
97	97	(2) are the conditions in which people are born,
98	98	grow, work, live, and age, and include the wider set of
99	99	forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life;
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102	102	•SRES 67 IS
103	103	(3) include factors such as housing, employment,
104	104	education, health care, food, transportation, social sup-
105	105	port, poverty, crime, violence, segregation, and environ-
106	106	mental toxins;
107	107	(4) are linked to a lack of opportunity and resources
108	108	to protect, improve, and maintain health; and
109	109	(5) taken together, create health inequities that stem
110	110	from unfair and unjust systems, policies, and practices,
111	111	and limit access to the opportunities and resources need-
112	112	ed to live the healthiest life possible;
113	113	Whereas, since its founding, the United States has had a
114	114	longstanding history and legacy of racism, mistreatment,
115	115	and discrimination that has perpetuated health inequities
116	116	for members of racial and ethnic minority groups;
117	117	Whereas that history and legacy of racism, mistreatment, and
118	118	discrimination includes—
119	119	(1) the immoral paradox of freedom and slavery,
120	120	which is an atrocity that can be traced throughout the
121	121	history of the United States, as African Americans lived
122	122	under the oppressive institution of slavery from 1619
123	123	through 1865, endured the practices and laws of segrega-
124	124	tion during the Jim Crow era, and continue to face the
125	125	ramifications of systemic racism through unjust and dis-
126	126	criminatory structures and policies;
127	127	(2) the failure of the United States to carry out the
128	128	responsibilities and promises made in more than 370
129	129	treaties ratified with sovereign indigenous communities,
130	130	including American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Ha-
131	131	waiians, and Pacific Islanders, as made evident by the
132	132	chronic and pervasive underfunding of the Indian Health
133	133	Service and Native Hawaiian health care, the vast health
134	134	and socioeconomic inequities faced by American Indian
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137	137	•SRES 67 IS
138	138	and Alaska Native people, and the inaccessibility of many
139	139	Federal public health and social programs in Native
140	140	American communities;
141	141	(3) the enactment of immigration laws in the United
142	142	States that scapegoated Asians, separated families, and
143	143	branded Asians as perpetual outsiders, such as—
144	144	(A) the Act entitled ‘‘An Act supplementary to
145	145	the Acts in relation to immigration’’, approved
146	146	March 3, 1875 (commonly known as the ‘‘Page Act
147	147	of 1875’’) (18 Stat. 477, chapter 141), which effec-
148	148	tively prohibited the entry of East Asian women into
149	149	the United States;
150	150	(B) the Act entitled ‘‘An Act to execute certain
151	151	treaty stipulations relating to Chinese’’, approved
152	152	May 6, 1882 (commonly known as the ‘‘Chinese Ex-
153	153	clusion Act’’) (22 Stat. 58, chapter 126), which
154	154	banned thousands of Chinese-born laborers, who
155	155	were essential in the completion of the trans-
156	156	continental railroad and development of the West
157	157	Coast of the United States; and
158	158	(C) the Act entitled ‘‘An Act to regulate the im-
159	159	migration of aliens to, and the residence of aliens in,
160	160	the United States’’, approved February 5, 1917
161	161	(commonly known as the ‘‘Immigration Act of
162	162	1917’’) (39 Stat. 874, chapter 29), which barred all
163	163	immigrants from the ‘‘Asiatic zone’’ and prevented
164	164	the migration of individuals from South Asia, South-
165	165	east Asia, and East Asia;
166	166	(4) during the Great Depression Era, the deporta-
167	167	tion of approximately 1,800,000 individuals based on
168	168	their Mexican ethnic identity, although approximately 60
169	169	percent of the deported individuals were citizens of the
170	170	United States, and the targeting of individuals of Mexi-
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173	173	•SRES 67 IS
174	174	can descent for ‘‘repatriation’’ due to scapegoating ef-
175	175	forts, which blamed those individuals for ‘‘stealing’’ jobs
176	176	from ‘‘real’’ Americans; and
177	177	(5) in 1942, the issuance of Executive Order 9066
178	178	which began the forced evacuation and detention of Japa-
179	179	nese American West Coast residents, placing 70,000 citi-
180	180	zens of the United States into ‘‘relocation centers’’;
181	181	Whereas, in 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson established
182	182	the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders,
183	183	which concluded that White racism is responsible for the
184	184	pervasive discrimination and segregation in employment,
185	185	education, and housing, causing deepened racial division
186	186	and the continued exclusion of Black communities from
187	187	the benefits of economic progress;
188	188	Whereas overt racism was embedded in the development of
189	189	medical science and medical training during the 18th,
190	190	19th, and 20th centuries, causing disproportionate phys-
191	191	ical and psychological harm to members of racial and
192	192	ethnic minority groups, including—
193	193	(1) the unethical practices and abuses experienced
194	194	by Black patients and research participants, such as the
195	195	Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male,
196	196	which serve as the foundation for the mistrust the Black
197	197	community has for the medical system; and
198	198	(2) the egregiously unethical and cruel treatment of
199	199	enslaved Black women who were forced to be the subject
200	200	of insidious medical experiments to advance modern gyn-
201	201	ecology, including those perpetuated by the so-called ‘‘fa-
202	202	ther of gynecology’’, J. Marion Sims;
203	203	Whereas structural racism cemented historical racial and eth-
204	204	nic inequities in access to resources and opportunities,
205	205	contributing to worse health outcomes;
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208	208	•SRES 67 IS
209	209	Whereas examples of structural racism include—
210	210	(1) before the enactment of the Medicare program,
211	211	the United States health care system was highly seg-
212	212	regated, and, as late as the mid-1960s, hospitals, clinics,
213	213	and doctors’ offices throughout the northern and south-
214	214	ern United States complied with Jim Crow laws and were
215	215	completely segregated by race, leaving Black communities
216	216	with little to no access to health care services;
217	217	(2) the landmark case Simkins v. Moses H. Cone
218	218	Memorial Hospital, 323 F.2d 959 (4th Cir. 1963), which
219	219	challenged the use of public funds by the Federal Govern-
220	220	ment to expand, support, and sustain segregated hospital
221	221	care and provided justification for title VI of the Civil
222	222	Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000d et seq.) and the
223	223	Medicare hospital certification program by establishing
224	224	Medicare hospital racial integration guidelines that ap-
225	225	plied to every hospital that participated in the Federal
226	226	program;
227	227	(3) that Pacific Islanders from the Freely Associated
228	228	States experience unique health inequities resulting from
229	229	United States nuclear weapons tests on their home is-
230	230	lands while they have been categorically denied access to
231	231	Medicaid and other Federal health benefits;
232	232	(4) that language minorities, including Spanish-
233	233	speaking, Chinese-speaking, and Tagalog-speaking people
234	234	in the United States, were not assured nondiscriminatory
235	235	access to federally funded services, including health serv-
236	236	ices, until the signing of Executive Order 13166 (42
237	237	U.S.C. 2000d–1 note; relating to improving access to
238	238	services for persons with limited English proficiency) in
239	239	2000;
240	240	(5) that the COVID–19 pandemic exacerbated eco-
241	241	nomic, health, housing, and food security barriers for
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244	244	•SRES 67 IS
245	245	Black, Hispanic or Latino, Asian American, Native Ha-
246	246	waiian, Pacific Islander, and Native American house-
247	247	holds, which already suffer from disproportionately high-
248	248	er rates of food insecurity; and
249	249	(6) that members of the Black, Native American,
250	250	Alaska Native, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific
251	251	Islander, and Hispanic or Latino communities are dis-
252	252	proportionately impacted by the criminal justice and im-
253	253	migration enforcement systems and face a higher risk of
254	254	contracting COVID–19 within prison populations and de-
255	255	tention centers due to the over-incarceration of members
256	256	of those communities;
257	257	Whereas subtle or implicit racism in all sectors of the medical
258	258	service profession continues to cause disproportionate
259	259	physical and psychological harm to members of racial and
260	260	ethnic minority groups;
261	261	Whereas examples of subtle or implicit racism in the medical
262	262	service profession include that—
263	263	(1) the history and persistence of racist and nonsci-
264	264	entific medical beliefs, which are associated with ongoing
265	265	racial inequities in treatment and health outcomes;
266	266	(2) implicit racial and ethnic biases within the
267	267	health care system, which have an explicit impact on the
268	268	quality of care experienced by members of racial and eth-
269	269	nic minority groups, such as the undertreatment of pain
270	270	in Black patients;
271	271	(3) nearly
272	272	1
273	273	⁄5of Hispanic or Latino Americans avoid
274	274	medical care due to concern about being discriminated
275	275	against or treated poorly;
276	276	(4) the United States health care system and other
277	277	economic and social structures remain fraught with bi-
278	278	ases based on race, ethnicity, sex (including sexual ori-
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281	281	•SRES 67 IS
282	282	entation and gender identity), and class that lead to
283	283	health inequities;
284	284	(5) women of color, including Black, Native Amer-
285	285	ican, Hispanic or Latina, Asian American, Native Hawai-
286	286	ian, and Pacific Islander women, have faced and continue
287	287	to face attacks on their prenatal, maternal, and reproduc-
288	288	tive health and rights; and
289	289	(6) through the early 1980s, physicians routinely
290	290	sterilized members of racial and ethnic minority groups,
291	291	specifically American Indian and Alaska Native women
292	292	(with
293	293	1
294	294	⁄4of childbearing-aged American Indian and Alas-
295	295	ka Native women being sterilized by the Indian Health
296	296	Service) and African-American and Latina women, per-
297	297	forming excessive and medically unnecessary procedures
298	298	without their informed consent;
299	299	Whereas structural racism perpetuates racial and ethnic in-
300	300	equities in the social determinants of health, which pro-
301	301	duces unintended negative health outcomes for members
302	302	of racial and ethnic minority groups;
303	303	Whereas examples of that structural racism include—
304	304	(1) that there are fewer pharmacies, medical prac-
305	305	tices, and hospitals in predominantly Black and Hispanic
306	306	or Latino neighborhoods, compared to White or more di-
307	307	verse neighborhoods;
308	308	(2) that environmental hazards, such as toxic waste
309	309	facilities, garbage dumps, and other sources of airborne
310	310	pollutants, are disproportionately located in predomi-
311	311	nantly Black, Hispanic or Latino, Asian American, Na-
312	312	tive Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, and low-income commu-
313	313	nities, resulting in poor air quality conditions, which can
314	314	increase the likelihood of chronic respiratory illness and
315	315	premature death from particle pollution;
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318	318	•SRES 67 IS
319	319	(3) that employed Black adults are 10 percent less
320	320	likely to have employer-sponsored health insurance than
321	321	employed White adults because of racial segregation in
322	322	occupation sectors and the types of organizations in
323	323	which they work;
324	324	(4) that 1 in 4 American Indian and Alaska Native
325	325	people lack health insurance and that Native Hawaiians,
326	326	Pacific Islanders, and certain groups of nonelderly Asian
327	327	American adults have lower levels of insurance than
328	328	White adults;
329	329	(5) that several States with higher percentages of
330	330	Black, Hispanic or Latino, American Indian, and Alaska
331	331	Native populations have not expanded their Medicaid pro-
332	332	grams, continuing to disenfranchise minority commu-
333	333	nities from access to health care as of the date of adop-
334	334	tion of this resolution;
335	335	(6) discriminatory housing practices, such as red-
336	336	lining, which have, for decades, systemically excluded
337	337	members of racial and ethnic minority groups from hous-
338	338	ing by robbing them of capital in the form of low-cost,
339	339	stable mortgages and opportunities to build wealth, and
340	340	the use of financial power by the Federal Government to
341	341	segregate renters in public housing;
342	342	(7) social inequities, such as differing access to qual-
343	343	ity health care, healthy food and safe drinking water,
344	344	safe and affordable neighborhoods, education, job secu-
345	345	rity, and reliable transportation, which affect health risks
346	346	and outcomes;
347	347	(8) exclusionary disciplinary practices (such as de-
348	348	tention and suspension) in primary education and even
349	349	early education settings, which disproportionately affect
350	350	children from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds,
351	351	particularly Black children; and
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354	354	•SRES 67 IS
355	355	(9) that, as much as 60 percent of the health of a
356	356	person in the United States can be determined by their
357	357	ZIP Code;
358	358	Whereas structural racism perpetuates ongoing knowledge
359	359	gaps in data, research, and development, which produces
360	360	unintended negative health outcomes for members of ra-
361	361	cial and ethnic minority groups;
362	362	Whereas examples of that structural racism include that—
363	363	(1) most participants in clinical trials are White, so
364	364	there is insufficient data to develop evidence-based rec-
365	365	ommendations for people from racial and ethnic minority
366	366	groups;
367	367	(2) medical research equipment and medical devices
368	368	are typically developed by majority-White teams and
369	369	therefore can have racial blind spots unintentionally built
370	370	into their design, rendering them less effective for people
371	371	from racial and ethnic minority groups, such as—
372	372	(A) electroencephalogram electrodes used in
373	373	neuroimaging research do not collect reliable data
374	374	when used on scalps with thick, curly hair; and
375	375	(B) pulse oximeters produce less accurate oxy-
376	376	gen saturation readings when used on fingertips
377	377	with darker skin;
378	378	(3) a lack of images depicting darker skin in medical
379	379	textbooks, literature, and journals contributes to higher
380	380	rates of underdiagnosis or misdiagnosis in patients with
381	381	darker skin; and
382	382	(4) many health-related studies fail to include data
383	383	on American Indians, Alaska Natives, Asian Americans,
384	384	Native Hawaiians, or Pacific Islanders, or do not
385	385	disaggregate data among those groups, leading to their
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388	388	•SRES 67 IS
389	389	invisibility in health data and unjust resource allocation
390	390	and policies;
391	391	Whereas racism produces unjust outcomes and treatment for
392	392	members of racial and ethnic minority groups, with such
393	393	negative experiences serving as stressors that over time
394	394	have a negative impact on physical health (leading, for
395	395	example, to high blood pressure or hypertension) and
396	396	mental health (leading, for example, to anxiety or depres-
397	397	sion);
398	398	Whereas there is evidence that racial and ethnic minority
399	399	groups continue to face discrimination in the United
400	400	States, examples of which include that—
401	401	(1) social scientists have documented racial micro-
402	402	aggressions in contemporary United States society, in-
403	403	cluding—
404	404	(A) assumptions that members of racial and
405	405	ethnic minority groups are not citizens of the United
406	406	States;
407	407	(B) assumptions of lesser intelligence;
408	408	(C) statements that convey color-blindness or
409	409	denial of the importance of race;
410	410	(D) assumptions of criminality or dangerous-
411	411	ness;
412	412	(E) denial of individual racism;
413	413	(F) promotion of the myth of meritocracy;
414	414	(G) assumptions that the cultural background
415	415	and communication styles of an individual are patho-
416	416	logical;
417	417	(H) treatment as a second-class citizen; and
418	418	(I) environmental messages of being unwelcome
419	419	or devalued;
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422	422	•SRES 67 IS
423	423	(2) compared to White Americans, Black Americans
424	424	are 5 times more likely to report experiencing discrimina-
425	425	tion when interacting with the police, Hispanic or Latino
426	426	Americans and Native Americans are nearly 3 times as
427	427	likely, and Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pa-
428	428	cific Islanders are nearly twice as likely;
429	429	(3) 42 percent of employees in the United States
430	430	have experienced or witnessed racism in the workplace;
431	431	(4) Muslims, South Asians, and Sikhs were unjustly
432	432	targeted for profiling, surveillance, arrest, discrimination,
433	433	harassment, assault, and murder after 9/11;
434	434	(5) xenophobic rhetoric, including anti-immigrant
435	435	rhetoric and the scapegoating of people of East Asian
436	436	and Southeast Asian descent for the COVID–19 pan-
437	437	demic, resulted in a surge of hate against Asian Ameri-
438	438	cans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders, including
439	439	increased harassment, discrimination, bullying, van-
440	440	dalism, and assault;
441	441	(6) nearly
442	442	1
443	443	⁄2of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians,
444	444	and Pacific Islanders throughout the United States have
445	445	experienced discrimination or unfair treatment that may
446	446	be illegal and the majority of victims of discrimination
447	447	name race or related characteristics as the reason for the
448	448	discrimination; and
449	449	(7) more than 50 percent of Hispanic or Latino
450	450	adults experience at least 1 form of discrimination due to
451	451	their racial or ethnic heritage, such as being treated as
452	452	if they were not smart, criticized for speaking Spanish,
453	453	told to return to their country, called offensive names, or
454	454	unfairly stopped by the police;
455	455	Whereas Black people in the United States experience overt
456	456	and direct forms of violence that, when not fatal, can
457	457	cause severe physical or psychological harm;
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460	460	•SRES 67 IS
461	461	Whereas examples of such forms of violence include—
462	462	(1) that Black people are confronted and threatened
463	463	by armed citizens while performing everyday tasks, such
464	464	as jogging in neighborhoods, driving, or playing in a
465	465	park;
466	466	(2) that Black people are 3 times more likely to be
467	467	killed by police than White people, and police violence is
468	468	the sixth leading cause of death for young Black men;
469	469	(3) the killings of Tamir Rice, Ahmaud Arbery,
470	470	Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Elijah McClain, Jayland
471	471	Walker, Jeenan Anderson, Timothy McCree Johnson,
472	472	Jordan Neely, and countless other Black Americans by
473	473	law enforcement;
474	474	(4) that it took the United States 66 years after the
475	475	senseless and brutal murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till
476	476	to make lynching a Federal crime;
477	477	(5) that, since 2015, mass shootings around the
478	478	country, such as in Buffalo, New York, and Charleston,
479	479	South Carolina, serve as reminders of the unresolved his-
480	480	tory of racism in the United States and highlight the
481	481	threats Black people must take into consideration when
482	482	going about their daily lives, both when outside their
483	483	communities and within those communities; and
484	484	(6) the threat of brutality and violence adversely im-
485	485	pacting mental health among Black communities;
486	486	Whereas American Indians and Alaska Natives experience
487	487	historical trauma, systemic oppression, and cultural geno-
488	488	cide that, even when not fatal, can cause severe physical
489	489	or psychological harm;
490	490	Whereas examples of such forms of violence include—
491	491	(1) forced relocation, termination, and assimilation
492	492	policies, such as boarding schools, that contributed to
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495	495	•SRES 67 IS
496	496	health disparities and legacies of trauma inflicted on in-
497	497	digenous people;
498	498	(2) the Army attempting cultural genocide by insti-
499	499	gating numerous massacres, including the mass execution
500	500	of 38 Dakota men in Minnesota, and the murder of 300
501	501	Lakota people at the Battle of Wounded Knee, to eradi-
502	502	cate American Indians and Alaska Natives;
503	503	(3) murder being the third leading cause of death
504	504	for Native women, and
505	505	4
506	506	⁄5of indigenous women experi-
507	507	encing violence in their lifetime;
508	508	(4) that, since 2016, there have been 5,712 cases of
509	509	missing and murdered indigenous women and people
510	510	across the United States, including 506 cases in 71
511	511	urban cities and 153 cases missing from law enforcement
512	512	databases, with those missing cases likely undercounting
513	513	the actual number of cases due to the underreporting of
514	514	cases within American Indian and Alaska Native commu-
515	515	nities;
516	516	(5) that the overall death rate from suicide among
517	517	American Indians and Alaska Natives is 20 percent high-
518	518	er compared to non-Hispanic White populations; and
519	519	(6) cycles of violence that have overburdened indige-
520	520	nous communities to respond to increased levels of vio-
521	521	lence, including gender-based violence, human trafficking,
522	522	suicide, and homicide with minimal resources;
523	523	Whereas American Indian, Alaska Natives, Hispanics or
524	524	Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific
525	525	Islanders experience racially motivated kidnapping, mur-
526	526	ders, and mass violence, such as shootings in Oak Creek,
527	527	Wisconsin, El Paso and Allen, Texas, Atlanta, Georgia,
528	528	and Indianapolis, Indiana, that, even when not fatal, can
529	529	cause severe physical or psychological harm;
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532	532	•SRES 67 IS
533	533	Whereas, throughout the history of the United States, mem-
534	534	bers of racial and ethnic minority groups have been at
535	535	the forefront of civil rights movements for essential free-
536	536	doms, human rights, and equal protection for
537	537	marginalized groups and continue to fight for racial, en-
538	538	vironmental, and economic justice today;
539	539	Whereas racial inequities in health continue to persist be-
540	540	cause of historical and contemporary racism;
541	541	Whereas public health experts agree that racism meets the
542	542	criteria of a public health crisis because—
543	543	(1) the condition affects many people, is seen as a
544	544	threat to the public, and is continuing to increase;
545	545	(2) the condition is distributed unfairly;
546	546	(3) preventive measures could reduce the effects of
547	547	the condition; and
548	548	(4) those preventive measures are not yet in place;
549	549	Whereas the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—
550	550	(1) declared racism a serious threat to public health;
551	551	and
552	552	(2) acknowledged the need for additional research
553	553	and investments to address that serious threat;
554	554	Whereas a Federal public health crisis declaration proclaims
555	555	racism as a pervasive health issue and alerts the people
556	556	of the United States to the need to enact immediate and
557	557	effective cross-governmental efforts to address the root
558	558	causes of structural racism and the downstream impacts
559	559	of that racism; and
560	560	Whereas such a declaration requires the response of govern-
561	561	ments to engage significant resources to empower the
562	562	communities that are impacted: Now, therefore, be it
563	563	Resolved, That the Senate— 1
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566	566	•SRES 67 IS
567	567	(1) supports the resolutions drafted, introduced, 1
568	568	and adopted by cities and localities across the 2
569	569	United States declaring racism a public health crisis; 3
570	570	(2) declares racism a public health crisis in the 4
571	571	United States; 5
572	572	(3) commits to— 6
573	573	(A) establishing a nationwide strategy to 7
574	574	address health disparities and inequities across 8
575	575	all sectors in society; 9
576	576	(B) dismantling systemic practices and 10
577	577	policies that perpetuate racism; 11
578	578	(C) advancing reforms to address years of 12
579	579	neglectful and apathetic policies that have led 13
580	580	to poor health outcomes for members of racial 14
581	581	and ethnic minority groups; and 15
582	582	(D) promoting efforts to address the social 16
583	583	determinants of health for all racial and ethnic 17
584	584	minority groups in the United States; and 18
585	585	(4) places a charge on the people of the United 19
586	586	States to move forward with urgency to ensure that 20
587	587	the United States stands firmly in honoring its 21
588	588	moral purpose of advancing the self-evident truths 22
589	589	that all people are created equal, that they are en-23
590	590	dowed with certain unalienable rights, and that 24
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593	593	•SRES 67 IS
594	594	among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of hap-1
595	595	piness. 2
596	596	Æ
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