Bill Text: TX HB1521 | 2025-2026 | 89th Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Relating to the implementation of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives by certain governmental entities.
Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Republican 4)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2025-03-12 - Referred to State Affairs [HB1521 Detail]
Download: Texas-2025-HB1521-Introduced.html
| 89R4133 RDS-F | ||
| By: Gerdes | H.B. No. 1521 | |
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| relating to the implementation of diversity, equity, and inclusion | ||
| initiatives by certain governmental entities. | ||
| BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: | ||
| SECTION 1. Subtitle A, Title 6, Government Code, is amended | ||
| by adding Chapter 621 to read as follows: | ||
| CHAPTER 621. PROHIBITION ON CERTAIN DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND | ||
| INCLUSION INITIATIVES | ||
| Sec. 621.001. DEFINITIONS. In this chapter: | ||
| (1) "Diversity, equity, and inclusion office" means an | ||
| office, division, or other unit of a governmental entity | ||
| established for the purpose of: | ||
| (A) influencing hiring or employment practices | ||
| or workforce composition at the entity with respect to race, sex, | ||
| color, or ethnicity, other than through the use of color-blind, | ||
| race-neutral, and sex-neutral hiring processes in accordance with | ||
| any applicable state and federal antidiscrimination laws; | ||
| (B) promoting differential treatment or | ||
| providing special benefits to individuals on the basis of race, | ||
| sex, color, or ethnicity; | ||
| (C) promoting policies or procedures designed or | ||
| implemented in reference to race, sex, color, or ethnicity, other | ||
| than policies or procedures: | ||
| (i) approved in writing by the attorney | ||
| general; and | ||
| (ii) implemented for the sole purpose of | ||
| ensuring compliance with any applicable federal law; | ||
| (D) conducting trainings, programs, or | ||
| activities designed or implemented in reference to race, sex, | ||
| color, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation, other | ||
| than trainings, programs, or activities: | ||
| (i) developed by an attorney; | ||
| (ii) approved in writing by the attorney | ||
| general; and | ||
| (iii) conducted for the sole purpose of | ||
| ensuring compliance with any applicable court order or state or | ||
| federal law; or | ||
| (E) promoting, as an official position of the | ||
| entity, a particular opinion referencing unconscious or implicit | ||
| bias, cultural appropriation, allyship, transgender ideology, | ||
| microaggressions, group marginalization, anti-racism, systemic | ||
| oppression, social justice, intersectionality, neo-pronouns, | ||
| heteronormativity, disparate impact, gender theory, racial or | ||
| sexual privilege, or any related formulation of the these concepts. | ||
| (2) "Governmental entity" means: | ||
| (A) a department, commission, board, office, or | ||
| other agency that is in the executive branch of state government and | ||
| that was created by the constitution or a statute, other than an | ||
| institution of higher education as defined by Section 61.003, | ||
| Education Code; | ||
| (B) the legislature or a legislative state | ||
| agency; | ||
| (C) the supreme court, the court of criminal | ||
| appeals, a court of appeals, a district court, or the Texas Judicial | ||
| Council or another agency in the judicial branch of state | ||
| government; | ||
| (D) a county, municipality, special purpose | ||
| district, including a school district, or any other political | ||
| subdivision of this state; or | ||
| (E) an open-enrollment charter school | ||
| established under Subchapter D, Chapter 12, Education Code. | ||
| Sec. 621.002. RESPONSIBILITY OF GOVERNMENTAL ENTITY | ||
| REGARDING DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION INITIATIVES. A | ||
| governmental entity shall ensure that each unit of the entity does | ||
| not, except as required by federal law: | ||
| (1) establish or maintain a diversity, equity, and | ||
| inclusion office; or | ||
| (2) hire or assign an employee of the entity or | ||
| contract with a third party to perform the duties of a diversity, | ||
| equity, and inclusion office. | ||
| Sec. 621.003. COMPLAINT; ENFORCEMENT. (a) A person who has | ||
| a reasonable belief that a governmental entity is violating this | ||
| chapter may file a complaint with the attorney general. | ||
| (b) If the attorney general determines that a governmental | ||
| entity named in a complaint received under Subsection (a) is | ||
| violating this chapter, the attorney general may file a petition | ||
| for a writ of mandamus to compel the governmental entity to comply | ||
| with this chapter. | ||
| (c) A mandamus action under Subsection (b) must be filed in: | ||
| (1) Travis County, if the governmental entity is an | ||
| entity described by Section 621.001(2)(A)-(C); or | ||
| (2) the county in which the governmental entity is | ||
| located, if the governmental entity is an entity described by | ||
| Section 621.001(2)(D) or (E). | ||
| SECTION 2. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives | ||
| a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as | ||
| provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this | ||
| Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this | ||
| Act takes effect September 1, 2025. | ||
