Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Jonesboro.
A bill to end affirmative action in education hiring and outlaw state goals for steering procurement contracts to minority- and women-owned businesses in Arkansas gained approval Monday night after previously stalling in the state House Committee on State Agencies & Governmental Affairs.
In a meeting that ran into the night, the bill by Jonesboro Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, the controversial measure received a do-pass recommendation from the same committee that had tabled it last month, casting doubt on its viability.
The bill was sent to the full House for a vote and could possibly be up for a vote on Thursday.
SB71 would disrupt an entire division of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, its Minority & Women-Owned Business Enterprise unit. The division sets goals for procurement business to go to enterprises owned by minorities, women and disabled veterans. The procurement goals have never had the force of law, but state agencies are required to track how much procurement business goes to those entities.
The legislation puts that system in jeopardy and would presumably outlaw the AEDC’s list of minority and women-owned businesses.
The registry would be replaced — after two years of hashing out the details — with a registry of businesses deserving extra consideration “based on merit or needs,” Sullivan told Arkansas Business last month.
The bill gained committee approval Monday night over the vocal objections of the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas, which has formally mobilized a coalition to oppose the bill. The committee vote was 11-3, “exactly the votes it needed to pass,” said Anna Beth Gorman, the CEO of the Women’s Foundation.
Six committee members were not present for the vote, and even if the bill passes the House, it will be required to go back to the Senate — where it narrowly passed the first time — before final passage.
“The sponsor had an amendment that was adopted, so it will have to clear the House floor and then be sent back to the Senate all over again” as the legislative session nears adjournment, Gorman said. “With luck, time will not be on the bill’s side. But so far we have not been lucky.”
The legislation narrowly prevailed in an 18-12 Senate vote March 9.
In a letter to foundation friends and supporters, Gorman said it’s unusual for the nonprofit to speak out against any legislation, “but in this instance we cannot be silent. This bill has the potential to do real harm for the economic well-being and mobility of our state’s women.”
In a letter to Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and lawmakers, the foundation laid out its worries about SB71, joined by coalition members like the CEOs and executive directors of Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, the Urban League of Arkansas, the Arkansas Black Philanthropy Collaborative, Southern Capital Project and the Heart of Arkansas United Way.
“SB71 removes all opportunity for the state to be intentional or innovative in its efforts to address … health disparities among Arkansans, educational attainment and workforce readiness in our K-12 populations, economic development activities that support a growing and thriving small business economy and ensure that Arkansas is competitive in attracting investment from outside our state,” the letter states.
Sullivan and supporters of his bill see the state’s goals for minority procurement and efforts to build up Black employment in education as being discriminatory. Sullivan told Arkansas Business that in certain cases, the current policy discriminates against white men.
The legislation’s goal, he said, is for the best applicant to win, regardless of race or gender. The bill would strike the words “diversity,” “equity” and “civil rights” from state laws and would repeal state schoolteacher and administrator recruitment and retention plans for minorities as well as its higher education minority retention programs.
“I understand that this is very contentious legislation, and I understand that people are very concerned,” Sullivan said last month. But he said other states had enacted similar bills and the sky hasn’t fallen. He also said opponents of SB71 “are just trying to scare people.”
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