State Rep. Ben Baker is a Republican from Neosho (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent).
The Senate Committee on Government Efficiency heard a bill Monday that would ban state funding for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
Sponsored by state Rep. Ben Baker, a Republican from Neosho, the bill would also bar state departments from mandating a DEI program in contracts with private organizations.
“The bottom line is we as a state should not be allowing propaganda to creep into the workplace that pushes preferential and unfair treatment of our state workers,” Baker said.
Last month, Gov. Mike Kehoe signed an executive order that forbids funding for DEI programs within state departments under the purview of the governor. Baker’s bill prohibits the use of any state funding for DEI.
Following the signing of Kehoe’s executive order, a letter was sent to state employees explaining the executive order.
In the letter, the governor clarified that the order would not affect several key organizations like the Minority-Owned and the Women-Owned Business programs, which provide opportunities for companies that are majority controlled by either women or minority individuals to bid on state contracts.
Another carve out listed in the governor’s letter was the Model Employer Initiative which seeks to increase the participation of disabled Missourians in the workforce.
The letter also makes it clear that recognition of Black History Month, Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month, and Martin Luther King Jr. Day are not prohibited in the order.
Baker said that his bill would have the same carveouts as the governor’s bill and that this would be further clarified in the language of his bill. He argued during the hearing that no money should be allocated towards DEI programs. According to the bill’s fiscal note, no state department would see increased or decreased revenue as a result of this bill.
Baker said that there has been growing support for the removal of DEI, citing executive orders from both Kehoe and President Donald Trump. He also said the governor is in support of passing his bill.
Baker also noted increased research opposed to DEI programs, citing a study conducted by the Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy, a think tank based in Canada. This claim was challenged by Sen. Patty Lewis, a Kansas City Democrat.
“It’s not just the research,” Baker said. “There’s also anecdotal stories where I have met people in our state government agencies that have had major issues with what is being done with DEI.”
Sharon Jones, a representative from the NAACP, spoke against the bill. Jones claimed that the language of the bill was too broad and could affect seemingly innocuous training sessions.
“This is a sledgehammer trying to aim at a very, very specific issue,” Jones said.
Mary Byrne, a policy expert with The Heartland Institute and co-founder of the Missouri Coalition Against Common Core, spoke in favor of the bill. Byrne claimed that aspects of DEI programs have their roots in Marxism.
“The ideas of these matrixes are aligned to the tenants of critical race theory,” Byrne said, “a theory promoting race conflict as a proxy for Marxist economic class conflict to foster social revolution.”
This story originally appeared in the Columbia Missourian. It can be republished in print or online.