Anti-Racism in Public Health Act of 2025
The Anti-Racism in Public Health Act of 2025 would create a new National Center on Antiracism and Health within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This center would declare racism a public health crisis, promote antiracist knowledge and practices, and develop interventions to dismantle the mechanisms of racism in health care and health systems. It would fund and coordinate research on structural racism, collect and publicly share disaggregated data (with privacy protections), establish regional centers of excellence in minority communities, and provide training and standards to integrate antiracism into public health work. The bill also requires regular reporting on antiracist activities and coordination with Tribal authorities. Separately, the bill would establish a law enforcement violence prevention program within the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC). This program would study the public health impacts of police use of force, develop interventions to reduce deaths and trauma from policing, and coordinate data collection and reporting on police violence with the Department of Justice and other partners. It would fund epidemiologic research, support community-based research, standardize data collection, and require an annual report to Congress with policy recommendations. Overall, the bill aims to treat racism and police violence as public health issues and direct research and funding toward understanding and eliminating their health impacts.
Key Points
- 1Establishment of the National Center on Antiracism and Health within the CDC, with a director chosen by the CDC Director and a mandate to declare racism a public health crisis and to develop and implement antiracist health interventions.
- 2Center duties include researching structural racism, creating a data clearinghouse with public, privacy-protected, disaggregated data; funding regional centers of excellence; and educating the public about antiracist public health practices.
- 3Strong emphasis on tribal engagement: coordination with the Indian Health Service, Tribal Advisory Committee, and government-to-government consultation to respect Tribal data sovereignty and ensure meaningful Tribal involvement.
- 4Creation of a Federal framework for data collection and governance, including training programs, standards for data practices, and a Federal Advisory Committee on racism and health.
- 5Establishment of a separate police violence prevention program within NCIPC to study health impacts of police uses of force, fund research and interventions, and coordinate with the Department of Justice for standardized data collection and reporting.