S. 1489 — Anti-Racism in Public Health Act of 2025

This section defines, for purposes of the Act, (1) "antiracism" as a collection of antiracist policies that lead to racial equity and are substantiated by antiracist ideas, and (2) "antiracist" as any measure that produces or sustains racial equity between racial groups.

This section establishes the National Center on Antiracism and Health within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to declare racism a public health crisis, develop and apply knowledge on antiracism in public health, and contribute to related national and global conversations. The CDC Director must appoint a Center Director with experience living in and working with racial and ethnic minority communities. The Secretary, acting through the Center, must (1) conduct research and data collection on structural racism's public health impacts (e.g., disparate policies, implicit bias, social determinants) and intervention effectiveness; (2) award noncompetitive grants to public and nonprofit entities, including state, local, territorial, and Tribal health agencies; (3) establish at least three regional centers of excellence in racial and ethnic minority communities; (4) create a clearinghouse for disaggregated data on health disparities (publicly available while protecting privacy under HIPAA); (5) provide public education on structural racism and antiracist interventions; (6) consult with other CDC offices to integrate racism measures into surveys, establish a Federal Advisory Committee on racism and health, develop training for public health professionals, set data standards, and form leadership councils; (7) coordinate with the Indian Health Service and CDC's Tribal Advisory Committee, respecting Tribal data sovereignty; and (8) produce and publicly post a report on antiracist activities at least every two years.

This section establishes a law enforcement violence prevention program within the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The program requires the Center to conduct research on the public health impacts of uses of force by law enforcement—including police brutality and violence—develop interventions to eliminate related deaths, injuries, trauma, and mental health effects, and coordinate comprehensive data collection, analysis, and reporting on police violence and misconduct in consultation with the Department of Justice and independent researchers. Under the program, the Center must (1) summarize data on law enforcement-related death, trauma, and injury; (2) conduct or support research, including statistics, studies of correlating factors (e.g., legal, socioeconomic, discrimination), public information, strategic plans, and best practices from other countries; (3) award grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements for epidemiologic research and interventions by federal, state, local, private, community, academic, and other entities; (4) coordinate data standardization with the Department of Justice and other agencies; (5) submit annual reports to Congress on findings, data improvements, and recommendations to disrupt policing processes that reinforce racism and racial disparities; (6) conduct primary research; and (7) study alternatives to law enforcement responses. The section authorizes appropriations of such sums as necessary.