Several members of the Arkansas Legislative Black Caucus clashed with Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Jonesboro, on Monday over his bill that he said is aimed at ending affirmative action in state and local governmentv.
Sullivan's Senate Bill 71 cleared the Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee last week, after the committee voted to add a nine-page amendment to the original two-page bill.
He told the Arkansas Legislative Black Caucus on Monday that he promised the Senate last week "we would wait at least a week to hear from various community members and other legislators before we ran it on the floor."
He said "I was never called a racist" during about 35 years as an employee and an employer in the public and private sectors.
"It was not until I got in the Legislature that I got that label, and I reject that label. I reject that this is a racist bill," Sullivan said during a nearly hourlong discussion with caucus members about the bill.
The U.S. Supreme Court is likely to effectively end affirmative action in college admissions in a ruling sometime this year, he said.
"It is time to have this conversation," Sullivan said. "I don't know if the bill will pass or not. I don't know how much support there is in the Senate actually or the House to this bill. ... I am very interested today if somebody has a plan on how to end affirmative action or end discrimination.
"If you have a plan on that, I would like to hear it, and maybe you can help work on this bill to do that."
But Rep. Fred Allen, D-Little Rock, said "it appears to me that you don't want to talk about it, [and] your mind is made up.
"I don't care what we say here today or do today. I think your mind is made up," he told Sullivan.
Sullivan said he is glad to have this discussion with the Arkansas Legislative Black Caucus.
As far as Allen's suggestion that he has mind made up on the bill, Sullivan said he has demonstrated with many other bills that he is willing to listen to all sides.
"The claim that I have my mind made up and I am not going to change my mind I think is false, but you are entitled to your opinion," Sullivan said.
Sen. Fred Love, D-Little Rock, said Sullivan's bill will impact some people in a detrimental way.
"I am kind of sad to hear you say that you are going to put it on the Black Caucus to file a bill to end discrimination when we are the people that are being discriminated against," he said. "How would you put it on us to bring a bill to end discrimination?"
In response Sullivan said "I think it is incumbent upon all of us to do that.
"The purpose of [my] being here today is to hear people who have an opposing view, and I think it is incumbent upon all of us to sit down and [to] have a conversation," he said.
Sullivan said "I think it is incumbent upon on all of us -- the white caucus, the Asian caucus, whatever caucus you want to have -- we have got to sit around the table and see what the parameters are for us to end this because I think we can."
Love said the bill does not end discrimination.
"This is the bill to end the programs that were implemented so that it could be a level playing field," he said.
"I don't think you even understand all the implications of your bill and all the programs that it would impact," Love said.
He suggested that Sullivan pull down his bill until he understands the implications of the bill.
Love said "everybody that is not a white male" could be affected by the bill.
"I think it is disingenuous for you to come in here and say that we should have filed a bill to end discrimination when we are the ones that are always being discriminated against," Love said.
"You do not understand that plight of my people."
Sullivan said there are African-Americans and many other people who support his bill and want to end discrimination.
"To the statement that I don't understand, I think that's a presumption that sounds good," he said.
Sullivan said to make the presumption that Love understands him is wrong.
Under Senate Bill 71, "The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, an individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in matters of state employment, public education or state procurement," under a section of the bill which states that it would only apply to an action taken after the effective date of the measure.
The bill states this section of the bill does not prohibit the following matters:
• Consideration by the state of bona fide qualifications based on gender that are reasonably necessary to the normal functions of state government, public education or state procurement.
• Invalidate a court order or consent decree that is in force at the effective date of this measure.
• Prohibit an action necessary to establish or maintain eligibility for a federal program if ineligibility would demonstrably result in a loss of federal funds to the state.
• Preempt state discrimination law or federal discrimination law.
Under SB71, a person who negligently violates this section of the bill would be guilty of a Class A misdemeanor.
Among other things, the bill would repeal the state law requiring all state-supported colleges and universities to establish a program for the retention of Black students and faculty and staff who are members of minority groups, as well as the state law requiring each state-supported institution of higher education to prepare an affirmative action program for the recruitment of Black students and other members of minorities for faculty and staff positions.
The measure also would repeal the state law requiring each state department, agency, board, commission and institution of higher education and every constitutional officer to adopt and to pursue a comprehensive equal employment hiring program designed to achieve a goal of increasing the percentage of minority employees within the state department, agency, board, commission or institution of higher education and within the constitutional office to a level that approximates the percentage of minorities in the state's population, as well as the state law requiring the Department of Education to set goals for increasing the number of teachers and administrators of minority races and ethnicities in the state.
Sen. Linda Chesterfield, D-Little Rock, repeatedly pressed Sullivan about how he came up with Senate Bill 71.
Sullivan said there are several other states that have similar laws.
"I believe discrimination is wrong, and so when I look at it and I think discrimination is wrong I am going to take steps as a legislator to end discrimination," he said.
Chesterfield said "trying to help people overcome past wrongs is not to me discrimination."
Sullivan said his bill is modeled after California's measure that ended affirmative action.
"When I look at across the board in trying to decide what legislation I want to run, this is an important thing for the state of Arkansas ... to be a leader in ending discrimination," he said.
Chesterfield said Sullivan's bill would "end any attempts by this state to do anything at all that would give a hand up to someone.
"When we started this process some time ago, we were trying to level the playing field, and the playing field has never been level because every 20 years or so in history when we begin to level it people say we have leveled it enough, and then the field once again gets unleveled," she said.
Chesterfield said "we have not been dealing with a level playing field here in this country for a long time, but [various] programs that have been put in place have helped people."
She said she does not label Sullivan as anything other than a colleague in the Senate.