Senators Introduce Anti-Racism in Public Health Act of 2025 to Combat Structural Racism and Police Violence

By [Your Name], Government Watch Journalist

Washington, D.C. – April 10, 2025 – A bipartisan group of U.S. Senators has introduced legislation aimed at addressing structural racism and police violence as public health crises. The bill, titled the “Anti-Racism in Public Health Act of 2025” (S. 1489), seeks to amend the Public Health Service Act by establishing dedicated research and investment programs within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Introduced by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), along with Senators Ed Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Tina Smith (D-MN), and Mazie Hirono (D-HI), the bill was read twice and referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. It represents a significant push to integrate antiracism into public health policy, declaring racism an ongoing threat to the health and well-being of communities across the United States and beyond.

Key Provisions: Establishing the National Center on Antiracism and Health

The core of the legislation focuses on creating the National Center on Antiracism and Health within the CDC. This new center, to be led by a director with experience in racial and ethnic minority communities, would promote public health by tackling racism head-on. Its mission includes:

Declaring racism a public health crisis and recognizing it as a historical and present threat to physical and mental health.
Developing new knowledge on the science and practice of antiracism, including how racism affects healthcare provision and systems influencing health outcomes.
Translating research into actionable interventions that dismantle racist mechanisms and foster equitable structures, policies, and norms.
Contributing to national and global discussions on racism’s impacts on health.

The Secretary of Health and Human Services, through the center, would carry out various duties, such as:

Conducting research, collecting, analyzing, and publicly sharing data on antiracism, structural racism’s public health effects, and intervention strategies. This includes studying policies with disparate impacts on communities of color, implicit bias, white supremacy, social determinants like poverty and housing, and intersections with other oppressions (e.g., based on age, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability).
Awarding noncompetitive grants and cooperative agreements to public and nonprofit entities, including state, local, territorial, and Tribal health agencies, for data collection and analysis.
Establishing at least three regional centers of excellence in antiracism, located in racial and ethnic minority communities, to research racism’s mechanisms in health, inequities in care access, and historical antiracist movements.
Creating a clearinghouse for data storage, ensuring it’s comprehensive, disaggregated by demographics (e.g., race, ethnicity, gender identity), publicly available, and compliant with privacy laws like HIPAA.
Providing public education on structural racism’s health impacts and antiracist interventions.
Consulting with other CDC offices to integrate racism measures into surveys, establish advisory committees, develop training for public health professionals, and set standards for data collection.
Coordinating with the Indian Health Service and Tribal entities to respect Tribal data sovereignty and conduct meaningful consultations.
Producing biennial reports on the center’s antiracist activities, posted on the CDC website.

The bill authorizes appropriations as necessary to fund these initiatives.

Addressing Police Violence Through a Dedicated Prevention Program

In a complementary section, the legislation mandates the establishment of a law enforcement violence prevention program within the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. This program would treat police violence as a public health issue, focusing on research, intervention, and data-driven solutions.

Key functions include:

Researching the public health impacts of law enforcement uses of force, including police brutality and violence, and developing interventions to eliminate deaths, injuries, trauma, and mental health effects from police interactions.
Ensuring comprehensive data collection, analysis, and reporting on police violence and misconduct, in consultation with the Department of Justice and independent researchers.
Summarizing knowledge on the distribution and characteristics of law enforcement-related deaths, trauma, and injuries.
Conducting studies with state public health departments on statistics, correlating factors (e.g., legal, socioeconomic, discrimination), and public information on uses of force.
Identifying at-risk communities and creating strategic research plans to understand and reduce police violence, including best practices from other countries.
Awarding grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements to agencies, institutions, and community groups for epidemiologic research and interventions to reduce or eliminate excessive force.
Coordinating with federal, state, and local agencies to standardize data on police violence and explore eradication options.
Submitting annual reports to Congress with findings, recommendations for improved data collection, and strategies to disrupt racist processes in policing that exacerbate health disparities.
Conducting primary research on uses of force and studying alternatives to traditional law enforcement responses to minimize violence.

Appropriations are also authorized as needed for this program.

Broader Implications and Next Steps

Definitions in the bill clarify key terms: “Antiracism” refers to policies and ideas leading to racial equity, while an “antiracist” measure sustains equity between racial groups.

This legislation arrives amid growing recognition of systemic inequities in health outcomes, particularly for communities of color disproportionately affected by racism and police interactions. By embedding antiracism into federal public health infrastructure, the bill aims to foster a healthier, more equitable society.

The full text of S. 1489 is available here. As the bill progresses through committee, it will be crucial to monitor its potential impact on public health policy and community well-being.