Politics

EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Lee Looks To Codify Executive Order Restoring Opportunity In Workplace

Sen. Mike Lee (Screen Capture/CSPAN)

Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee is introducing a bill Thursday to codify President Donald Trump’s executive order to restore equal opportunity and meritocracy in the workplace.

Lee’s Restoring Equal Opportunity Act seeks to remove “disparate impact” on minorities in civil rights law, putting equality of opportunity rather than equality of outcome at its bedrock, according to bill text first obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. Republican Texas Rep. Brandon Gill is leading the effort in the House to make into law the executive order addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies.

“Disparate impact has undermined equal opportunity in hiring for generations,” Lee said in a statement to the DCNF. “These policies are antithetical to the Constitution, keeping hardworking men and women from the jobs they deserve. It’s un-American, and it’s going to stop. The Restoring Equal Opportunity Act will prohibit this woke practice and support President Trump’s fight for equality under the law.”

Disparate impact requires employers to consider race in hiring processes and effectively creates race-based quotas rather than bona fide job-oriented recruitment evaluations. Policies and practices can be deemed to have a “disparate impact” on a group of applicants based on race, sex or characteristics — even if they are not intentionally discriminatory.

“Americans deserve equal opportunity, not race-based quotas,” Gill said in a statement to the DCNF. “Equality under the law is a core American principle, ensuring every citizen’s right to equal protection and due process. I’m proud to introduce the Restoring Equal Opportunity Act alongside Senator Lee to bring merit, rather than DEI, back to our hiring and selection processes.”

The idea of disparate impact was born from the 1971 Supreme Court case Griggs v. Duke Power Company in which the Court ruled that Title VII the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited non-overtly discriminatory employment practices that have a disparate impact on minorities. The Restoring Equal Opportunity Act would effectively prohibit any disparate impact claims under Title VII or the Fair Housing Act.

Trump issued his “Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy” executive order April 23 in an effort to base employment decisions on “merit and skill … their [employers’] needs, or the needs of their customers.”

“As the Supreme Court put it, “[t]he way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race,” the order says.

Clawing back DEI policies has been a priority of Trump’s second term in office, and he quickly issued numerous executive orders focused on enforcing merit-based practices in the workplace. After signing a memorandum removing DEI from the Foreign Service in March, Trump stated his administration “will terminate every diversity, equity, and inclusion program across the entire federal government.”