Panel OKs proposed removal of racial and gender quotas for Arkansas boards and commissions

by Tess Vrbin, Arkansas Advocate
March 4, 2025

An Arkansas legislative panel revived a debate over whether government entities should consider race, gender or other characteristics or experiences before approving a previously failed bill Monday.

House Bill 1365 would remove race and gender quotas and qualifications from a variety of state boards, councils and commissions, altering 22 sections of state law. Bill sponsor Rep. Karilyn Brown, R-Sherwood, and attorney Laura D’Agostino said current requirements to have minimum numbers of women and racial minorities on the panels are unfair.

D’Agostino, who is based in Virginia and works for the California law firm Pacific Legal Foundation, said Arkansas could be vulnerable to lawsuits for unequal treatment of its citizens as the law currently stands.

“People are so complex and different that it’s extremely demeaning to say, ‘Well, if you’re of this racial perspective or if you’re a woman, you’re automatically going to bring a diverse perspective,’” D’Agostino said. “…The government should not be in a position to use racial classifications to either think that it knows better than its own people or to tell people that it’s being culturally responsive because it’s assuming that people [in the same group] have the same perspectives.”

Brown and D’Agostino repeatedly said passing HB 1365 will increase, not decrease, opportunities for all Arkansans. Their arguments were similar to those of the sponsors of Act 116 of 2025, originally Senate Bill 3, which became law in February after much debate in both chambers.

Act 116 will “prohibit discrimination or preferential treatment” by public entities and eliminate required minority recruitment and retention plans and reports from public school districts and higher education institutions. The law’s Republican sponsors, Rep. Mary Bentley of Perryville and Sen. Dan Sullivan of Jonesboro, said it will prioritize merit over demographics.

HB 1365 “seems much more straightforward and narrowly tailored than SB 3,” said Rep. David Ray, R-Maumelle.

Ray was one of 13 of the 20 members of the House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs who voted for HB 1365, while the panel’s three Democrats were the only members to vote against it. The committee failed to pass the bill when it was first heard Feb. 12, since several members were absent, and the bill received nine votes for it when at least 11 were needed.

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is responsible for appointing people to most boards and commissions, and D’Agostino and Ray both said any governor who does not consider a range of experiences among Arkansans when making appointments will be accountable to the voters.

Debate

No members of the public spoke for or against HB 1365 Monday, but committee discussion lasted more than an hour before the vote.

House Minority Leader Andrew Collins, D-Little Rock, noted that the Arkansas House in decades past was entirely composed of white men. 

“I think that the Legislatures of the past, who realized the errors we made in over-erring on the the side of letting the old boys’ network run its course, realized that there’s value in having people who look different and have different backgrounds in the room making decisions, especially when we’re talking about things like minority health [and] closing the achievement gap,” Collins said.

Rep. Denise Ennett, also a Little Rock Democrat, said her constituents who are racial minorities have told her for years that they’ve had trouble being appointed to state boards and commissions on which they want to serve. She said this highlighted the need to keep the racial quotas as they are.

Brown insisted that “diversity occurs naturally” and the state should not codify language that “makes things more awkward or more difficult to fill positions.”

“With all due respect, I think this language came about because diversity wasn’t happening naturally,” said Rep. Nicole Clowney, D-Fayetteville.

Clowney repeated her statement from the committee’s Act 116 debate that she had yet to hear concrete examples of harm resulting from the state’s current laws focused on diversity, equity and inclusion.

D’Agostino said Pacific Legal Foundation once represented a white man in Arkansas who sought appointment to the state Social Work Licensing Board but could not be appointed because of the requirement for minority members. She said the lawsuit became moot after Sanders signed Act 254 of 2023, which removed the board’s requirement that at least two of its nine members be African American.

Act 254 passed both chambers of the Legislature with solely Republican support.

HB 1365 will next go to the full House for consideration.

Arkansas Advocate is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arkansas Advocate maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sonny Albarado for questions: info@arkansasadvocate.com.

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