Title: Expanding Representation at HHS Act of 2020
Policy area: Health

Summary:
Expanding Representation at HHS Act of 2020
This bill requires certain agencies and offices within the Department of Health and Human Services to address diversity in their procurement activities and workforce. The bill specifically covers offices and agencies that are authorized to award grants or other financial assistance, such as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Each covered entity must establish an Office of Minority and Women Inclusion that is responsible for managing diversity within the entity and with respect to the entity's activities. This new office is not, however, responsible for enforcing civil rights statutes, regulations, or executive orders.
In addition, an entity subject to the bill's requirements must modify its evaluation, award, and termination of grants and contracts to ensure, to the maximum extent feasible, the inclusion of minorities; women; and minority-led and women-led grantees, contractors, subgrantees, and subcontractors. Each entity must also undertake actions to increase diversity in its workforce, including by recruiting at institutions of higher education where the majority of the students are members of minority populations.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 8374 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 8374

To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for establishment of 
an Office of Minority and Women Inclusion within each covered agency of 
  the Department of Health and Human Services, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 24, 2020

Ms. DeLauro (for herself, Mr. Garcia of Illinois, Mrs. Watson Coleman, 
  Mr. Grijalva, Mr. Cohen, Mr. San Nicolas, Mrs. Hayes, Mr. Carson of 
 Indiana, Ms. Norton, Ms. Johnson of Texas, Ms. Lee of California, Mr. 
  Cardenas, Mr. Lowenthal, Mr. Smith of Washington, Ms. Escobar, Mr. 
Khanna, Ms. Clarke of New York, Ms. Sewell of Alabama, Ms. Jackson Lee, 
Ms. Scanlon, Ms. Clark of Massachusetts, Mr. Sires, Ms. Velazquez, Mr. 
Lawson of Florida, Mrs. Beatty, Mr. Richmond, Ms. Fudge, and Ms. Moore) 
 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 establishment of 
an Office of Minority and Women Inclusion within each covered agency of 
  the Department of Health and Human Services, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Expanding Representation at HHS Act 
of 2020''.

SEC. 2. OFFICE OF MINORITY AND WOMEN INCLUSION.

    Part A of title II of the Public Health Service Act is amended by 
inserting after section 229 of such Act (42 U.S.C. 237a) the following 
new section:

``SEC. 229A. OFFICE OF MINORITY AND WOMEN INCLUSION.

    ``(a) Office of Minority and Women Inclusion.--
            ``(1) Establishment.--Not later than the date that is 6 
        months after the date of enactment of the Expanding 
        Representation at HHS Act of 2020, the agency administrator of 
        each covered agency shall establish an office to be known as 
        the Office of Minority and Women Inclusion (in this section 
        referred to as an `Office') within the covered agency to be 
        responsible for all matters of the covered agency relating to 
        diversity in the management, employment, and business 
        activities of the covered agency.
            ``(2) Transfer of responsibilities.--The agency 
        administrator of each covered agency that, preceding the 
        establishment of an Office pursuant to paragraph (1) within the 
        covered agency, assigned the responsibilities described in 
        paragraph (1) (or comparable responsibilities) to an office 
        other than such Office shall ensure that such responsibilities 
        are transferred to such Office.
            ``(3) Duties with respect to civil rights laws.--The 
        responsibilities described in paragraph (1) do not include 
        enforcement of statutes, regulations, or Executive orders 
        pertaining to civil rights, except that the Director of each 
        Office shall coordinate with the agency administrator of the 
        respective covered agency regarding the design and 
        implementation of any remedies resulting from violations of 
        such statutes, regulations, or Executive orders.
    ``(b) Director.--
            ``(1) In general.--The Office of a covered agency shall be 
        headed by a Director, who shall be appointed by, and shall 
        report directly to, the agency administrator of the covered 
        agency.
            ``(2) Designation.--The position of Director shall be--
                    ``(A) a career reserved position in the Senior 
                Executive Service, as such terms are defined in section 
                3132 of title 5, United States Code; or
                    ``(B) an equivalent position.
            ``(3) Duties.--The agency administrator of each covered 
        agency, in consultation with the Director of the Office of the 
        covered agency, shall develop standards for--
                    ``(A) developing and overseeing the implementation 
                of standards for--
                            ``(i) equal employment opportunity and the 
                        racial, ethnic, and gender diversity of the 
                        workforce and senior management of the covered 
                        agency;
                            ``(ii) increased participation of minority-
                        led and women-led businesses in the programs 
                        and contracts of the covered agency, including 
                        standards for coordinating technical assistance 
                        to such businesses; and
                            ``(iii) assessing the diversity policies 
                        and practices of entities receiving financial 
                        assistance from the covered agency, except that 
                        the agency administrator shall exempt small 
                        entities from the assessment, as determined to 
                        be appropriate by the agency administrator; and
                    ``(B) advising the agency administrator of the 
                covered agency on the impact of the policies and 
                regulations of the covered agency on minority-led and 
                women-led grantees and subgrantees.
    ``(c) Staff.--Each Office shall be staffed at the appropriate 
levels to carry out the functions and responsibilities of the Office 
under this section.
    ``(d) Inclusion in All Levels of Grantee and Subgrantee 
Activities.--
            ``(1) In general.--The agency administrator of each covered 
        agency, in consultation with the Director of the Office of the 
        covered agency, shall develop and implement standards and 
        procedures to ensure, to the maximum extent possible, the fair 
        inclusion and utilization of minorities, women, and minority-
        led and women-led grantees and subgrantees in all activities of 
        the covered agency at all levels, including in procurement, 
        insurance, and all types of contracts.
            ``(2) Grantmaking and contracts.--The procedures 
        established by each covered agency for review and evaluation of 
        grant- and subgrant-making and contract proposals and for 
        hiring service providers shall include, to the extent 
        consistent with applicable law, a component that gives 
        consideration to the diversity of the applicant. Such 
        procedures shall include a written statement, in a form and 
        with such content as the Director of the Office of the covered 
        agency shall prescribe, that a grantee, subgrantee, or 
        contractor shall ensure, to the maximum extent possible, the 
        fair inclusion of women and minorities in the workforce of the 
        grantee, subgrantee, contractor, and subcontractors.
            ``(3) Termination.--
                    ``(A) Determination.--The standards and procedures 
                developed and implemented under this subsection shall 
                include a procedure for the Director of the Office 
                involved to determine whether a grantee, subgrantee, 
                contractor, or subcontractor of the covered agency has 
                failed to make a good faith effort to include 
                minorities and women in the workforce of the grantee, 
                subgrantee, contractor, or subcontractor.
                    ``(B) Effect of determination.--
                            ``(i) Recommendation to agency 
                        administrator.--Upon a determination under 
                        subparagraph (A) of a failure described in such 
                        subparagraph, the Director of the Office 
                        involved shall recommend to the agency 
                        administrator of the covered agency that the 
                        grant, subgrant, contract, or subcontract, as 
                        applicable, be terminated.
                            ``(ii) Action by agency administrator.--
                        Upon receipt of a recommendation under clause 
                        (i), the agency administrator of the covered 
                        agency may--
                                    ``(I) terminate the grant or 
                                contract, or direct the grantee or 
                                contractor to terminate the subgrant or 
                                subcontract, as the case may be;
                                    ``(II) make a referral to the 
                                Office of Federal Contract Compliance 
                                Programs of the Department of Labor; or
                                    ``(III) take other appropriate 
                                action.
    ``(e) Applicability.--This section applies with respect to all 
grant agreements and other contracts of a covered agency, including for 
services of any kind, including the services of adoption agencies, 
child welfare organizations, energy companies participating in the Low 
Income Home Energy Assistance Program, legal service providers. The 
grants, subgrants, contracts, and subcontracts referred to in this 
subsection include all contracts for all business and activities of a 
covered agency, at all levels, including grants, subgrants, contracts, 
and subcontracts for the programs and services provided by Department 
of Health and Human Services grantees, subgrantees, contractors, and 
subcontractors.
    ``(f) Reports.--The agency administrator of each covered agency, in 
consultation with the Director of the Office of the covered agency, 
shall submit to the Congress an annual report regarding the actions 
taken by the Office and the respective covered agency pursuant to this 
section. Each such report shall include--
            ``(1) a statement of the total amounts paid by the covered 
        agency to grantees and contractors, and the total amounts paid 
        by grantees and contractors to subgrantees and subcontractors, 
        during the 12-month covered reporting period;
            ``(2) the percentage of the amounts described in paragraph 
        (1) that were paid to minority-led or women-led grantees, 
        subgrantees, contractors, and subcontractors, disaggregated by 
        race, ethnicity, and gender;
            ``(3) the successes achieved and challenges faced by the 
        covered agency in operating minority and women outreach 
        programs;
            ``(4) the challenges the covered agency has experienced 
        during the 12-month covered reporting period in hiring 
        qualified minority and women employees and awarding grants and 
        contracting with qualified minority-led and women-led grantees, 
        subgrantees, contractors, and subcontractors; and
            ``(5) any other information, findings, conclusions, and 
        recommendations for legislative or agency action, as the agency 
        administrator determines appropriate.
    ``(g) Diversity in Covered Agency Workforce.--The agency 
administrator of each covered agency shall take affirmative steps to 
seek diversity in the workforce of the covered agency at all levels of 
the covered agency in a manner consistent with applicable law. Such 
steps shall include--
            ``(1) recruiting at historically Black colleges and 
        universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, women's colleges, 
        and other colleges and universities at which a majority of the 
        students are members of minority populations;
            ``(2) sponsoring and recruiting at job fairs in high-
        poverty communities;
            ``(3) placing employment advertisements in newspapers, 
        magazines, and technologically appropriate mediums, such as the 
        internet or online job boards oriented toward minorities and 
        women;
            ``(4) partnering with organizations that are focused on 
        developing opportunities for minorities and women to place 
        talented young minorities and women in industry internships, 
        summer employment, and full-time positions; and
            ``(5) any other mass media communications that the agency 
        administrator of the covered agency determines necessary.
    ``(h) Definitions.--For purposes of this section:
            ``(1) Agency administrator.--The term `agency 
        administrator' means the head of an agency.
            ``(2) Covered agency.--The term `covered agency'--
                    ``(A) means an agency or office of the Department 
                of Health and Human Services with the authority to 
                award grants or other financial assistance; and
                    ``(B) includes--
                            ``(i) the Office of the Secretary;
                            ``(ii) the Administration for Children and 
                        Families;
                            ``(iii) the Agency for Healthcare Research 
                        and Quality;
                            ``(iv) the Office of the Assistant 
                        Secretary for Health;
                            ``(v) the Office of the Assistant Secretary 
                        for Preparedness and Response;
                            ``(vi) the Center for Faith and Opportunity 
                        Initiatives;
                            ``(vii) the Centers for Disease Control and 
                        Prevention;
                            ``(viii) the Centers for Medicare & 
                        Medicaid Services;
                            ``(ix) the Food and Drug Administration;
                            ``(x) the Health Resources and Services 
                        Administration;
                            ``(xi) the National Institutes of Health;
                            ``(xii) the Office of Global Affairs;
                            ``(xiii) the Office of the National 
                        Coordinator for Health Information Technology; 
                        and
                            ``(xiv) the Substance Abuse and Mental 
                        Health Services Administration.
            ``(3) Minority.--The term `minority' means any Black 
        American, Native American, Hispanic American, or Asian 
        American.
            ``(4) Minority-led.--The term ` minority-led' means--
                    ``(A) more than 50 percent of the leadership, 
                control, or ownership of which is held by one or more 
                minority individuals;
                    ``(B) a significant percentage of senior management 
                or leadership positions of which are held by minority 
                individuals; and
                    ``(C) in the case of a for-profit entity, more than 
                50 percent of the net profit or loss of which accrues 
                to one or more minority individuals.
            ``(5) Office.--The term `Office' means the Office of 
        Minority and Women Inclusion established by a covered agency 
        pursuant to subsection (a).
            ``(6) Women-led.--The term `women-led' means--
                    ``(A) more than 50 percent of the ownership or 
                control of which is held by one or more women;
                    ``(B) a significant percentage of senior management 
                or leadership positions of which are held by one or 
                more women; and
                    ``(C) in the case of a for-profit entity, more than 
                50 percent of the net profit or loss of which accrues 
                to one or more women.''.
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