Introduction

<p Ms. LEE of Pennsylvania, Mr. JACKSON of Illinois, Mrs. RAMIREZ, Ms. DAMS, Mr. CARSON, Mr. FIELDS, Mr. GARCIA of California, Mr. GREEN of Texas, Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, Ms. OMAR, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. THANEDER, Ms. TLAIB, and Mrs. MCIVER submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

Resolution

Supporting the values of the Equity or Else quality-of-life platform and acknowledging the need for the House of Representatives to use the platform as a holistic framework for drafting and implementing policy that promotes racial and economic equity for all across various social issues.

1. Whereas the foundation of any nation is the institutions that lay the structure for the people’s development;
2. Whereas, according to the United Nations, the five basic institutions in a community are education, health care, housing, food production and delivery systems, and clothing;
3. Whereas through qualitative and quantitative empirical data we know that in Black, Brown, Indigenous, and working-class communities, systemic racism has sabotaged basic quality-of-life institutions while maintaining resources for a privileged few;
4. Whereas equity requires providing resources identified by impacted communities to alleviate harms caused by various social injustices including but not limited to racism and other forms of discrimination;
5. Whereas directly impacted communities must guide and inform processes committed to equity;
6. Whereas through hundreds of listening projects, town hall meetings, and engagement with grassroots organizations across the United States, the Equity or Else campaign has engaged tens of thousands of people across the country on the impact racism has had in education, housing, health care, food production and delivery systems, the environment, youth investment, immigration, senior rights, and economic development;
7. Whereas, in May 2022, representatives from organizations across the country reached consensus on the Equity or Else quality-of-life platform;
8. Whereas, in September 2022, the Equity or Else quality-of-life national platform was released as a living, breathing framework that can be used to shape racial equity policy at the local and Federal level;
9. Whereas local communities around the United States are using the Equity or Else framework to develop racial equity policy solutions;
10. Whereas the Equity or Else campaign is calling on local governments and the Federal Government to adopt a “zero tolerance” approach to racial inequity, expressed through policy and practice;

Acknowledgments

Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the House of Representatives—

1. (1) supports the values of the Equity or Else quality-of-life platform, including the acknowledgment that racial inequity can only be undone by changing the belief systems that currently serve as a foundation for our institutions, policies, and society at-large;
2. (2) recognizes the need to change its belief system and expresses a commitment to evolving the House of Representatives’ practices to prioritize and listen to impacted communities and to craft and pass transformative legislation that advances racial and economic equity across various social issues;
3. (3) acknowledges that without equity there is fascism.