I 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2904 
To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for public health research 
and investment into understanding and eliminating structural racism 
and police violence. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 26, 2023 
Ms. PRESSLEY (for herself, Ms. LEE of California, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. SAR-
BANES, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. HIGGINS of New York, Mr. TAKANO, Mr. 
CARTER of Louisiana, Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi, Mr. GARCI´A of Illi-
nois, Mr. ESPAILLAT, Mrs. WATSON
COLEMAN, Ms. WASSERMAN 
SCHULTZ, Ms. MATSUI, Ms. BUSH, Ms. SCANLON, Ms. WILSON of Flor-
ida, Ms. NORTON, Ms. CROCKETT, Ms. SEWELL, Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ, Mrs. 
CHERFILUS-MCCORMICK, Ms. STANSBURY, Mr. BOWMAN, Ms. JAYAPAL, 
Mr. POCAN, Mrs. MCCLELLAN, Mr. NADLER, Mr. COHEN, Mr. IVEY, Mr. 
SOTO, Mr. RUPPERSBERGER, Mr. SMITH of Washington, Ms. MENG, Mr. 
TORRES of New York, Mr. PAYNE, Mr. VARGAS, Mrs. BEATTY, Ms. 
JACKSON LEE, Ms. WILLIAMS of Georgia, Ms. BROWN, Mr. CARSON, Ms. 
CASTOR of Florida, and Ms. OMAR) introduced the following bill; which 
was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for 
public health research and investment into understanding 
and eliminating structural racism and police violence. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Anti-Racism in Public 
Health Act of 2023’’. 
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) ANTIRACISM.—The term ‘‘antiracism’’ is a 
collection of antiracist policies that lead to racial eq-
uity, and are substantiated by antiracist ideas. 
(2) ANTIRACIST.—The term ‘‘antiracist’’ is any 
measure that produces or sustains racial equity be-
tween racial groups. 
SEC. 3. PUBLIC HEALTH RESEARCH AND INVESTMENT IN 
DISMANTLING STRUCTURAL RACISM. 
Part B of title III of the Public Health Service Act 
(42 U.S.C. 243 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end 
the following: 
‘‘SEC. 320B. NATIONAL CENTER ON ANTIRACISM AND 
HEALTH. 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.— 
‘‘(1) NATIONAL CENTER.—There is established 
within the Centers for Disease Control and Preven-
tion a center to be known as the ‘National Center 
on Antiracism and Health’ (referred to in this sec-
tion as the ‘Center’). The Director of the Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention shall appoint a di-
rector to head the Center who has experience living 
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in and working with racial and ethnic minority com-
munities. The Center shall promote public health 
by— 
‘‘(A) declaring racism a public health crisis 
and naming racism as an historical and present 
threat to the physical and mental health and 
well-being of the United States and world; 
‘‘(B) aiming to develop new knowledge in 
the science and practice of antiracism, including 
by identifying the mechanisms by which racism 
operates in the provision of health care and in 
systems that impact health and well-being; 
‘‘(C) transferring that knowledge into 
practice, including by developing interventions 
that dismantle the mechanisms of racism and 
replace such mechanisms with equitable struc-
tures, policies, practices, norms, and values so 
that a healthy society can be realized; and 
‘‘(D) contributing to a national and global 
conversation regarding the impacts of racism on 
the health and well-being of the United States 
and world. 
‘‘(2) GENERAL DUTIES.—The Secretary, acting 
through the Center, shall undertake activities to 
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carry out the mission of the Center as described in 
paragraph (1), such as the following: 
‘‘(A) Conduct research into, collect, ana-
lyze and make publicly available data on, and 
provide leadership and coordination for the 
science and practice of antiracism, the public 
health impacts of structural racism, and the ef-
fectiveness of intervention strategies to address 
these impacts. Topics of research and data col-
lection under this subparagraph may include 
identifying and understanding— 
‘‘(i) policies and practices that have a 
disparate impact on the health and well- 
being of communities of color; 
‘‘(ii) the public health impacts of im-
plicit racial bias, White supremacy, weath-
ering, 
xenophobia, 
discrimination, 
and 
prejudice; 
‘‘(iii) the social determinants of health 
resulting from structural racism, including 
poverty, housing, employment, political 
participation, and environmental factors; 
and 
‘‘(iv) the intersection of racism and 
other systems of oppression, including as 
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related to age, sexual orientation, gender 
identity, and disability status. 
‘‘(B) Award noncompetitive grants and co-
operative agreements to eligible public and non-
profit private entities, including State, local, 
territorial, and Tribal health agencies and orga-
nizations, for the research and collection, anal-
ysis, and reporting of data on the topics de-
scribed in subparagraph (A). 
‘‘(C) Establish, through grants or coopera-
tive agreements, at least 3 regional centers of 
excellence, located in racial and ethnic minority 
communities, in antiracism for the purpose of 
developing new knowledge in the science and 
practice of antiracism in health by researching, 
understanding, and identifying the mechanisms 
by which racism operates in the health space, 
racial and ethnic inequities in health care ac-
cess and outcomes, the history of successful 
antiracist movements in health, and other 
antiracist public health work. 
‘‘(D) Establish a clearinghouse within the 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 
the collection and storage of data generated 
under the programs implemented under this 
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section for which there is not an otherwise ex-
isting surveillance system at the Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention. Such data 
shall— 
‘‘(i) be comprehensive and disaggre-
gated, to the extent practicable, by includ-
ing racial, ethnic, primary language, sex, 
gender identity, sexual orientation, age, so-
cioeconomic status, and disability dispari-
ties; 
‘‘(ii) be made publicly available; 
‘‘(iii) protect the privacy of individuals 
whose information is included in such data; 
and 
‘‘(iv) comply with privacy protections 
under the regulations promulgated under 
section 264(c) of the Health Insurance 
Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. 
‘‘(E) Provide information and education to 
the public on the public health impacts of struc-
tural racism and on antiracist public health 
interventions. 
‘‘(F) Consult with other Centers and Na-
tional Institutes within the Centers for Disease 
Control and Prevention, including the Office of 
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