Equity Impact Analysis of California Legislation

Equity Impact Analysis of California Legislation By Chris Micheli

            The California State Assembly provides for an important equity impact analysis of legislation to be completed pursuant to a house resolution adopted in 2021. House Resolution 39 states, in part: “the Assembly will explore methods to integrate equity more formally into its daily activities, including the potential adoption of equity impact analysis into the existing committee and floor bill analysis process.”

As a result, bill authors and staff may come across a provision in a committee worksheet, for example, such as the following:

 

Per HR 39, how does your bill promote equity solutions and maximize benefits for underserved and marginalized communities?

What is the basis for this provision and what does it mean? HR 39 was chaptered in 2021 and provides that “it is the intent of the Legislature to support the state’s health equity and economic recovery priorities by directing employees in the legislative branch to use tools to assess the equity impact of bills and include information about the potential harms and benefits of proposed legislation for vulnerable communities in committee and floor analyses, thereby reducing the unintended negative consequences of bills and preventing health and economic disparities.”

Furthermore, HR 39 notes that “Section 11135 of the Government Code states that no person in the State of California shall, on the basis of sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, ethnic group identification, age, mental disability, physical disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, or sexual orientation, be unlawfully denied full and equal access to the benefits of, or be unlawfully subjected to discrimination under, any program or activity that is conducted, operated, or administered by the state or by any state agency, is funded directly by the state, or receives any financial assistance from the state.”

Moreover, several other states and the federal government have adopted measures to implement racial impact statements as a tool to assess the potential disparities and impact of a policy before it is passed.

As a result, the Assembly resolved, “in order to continue the Assembly’s commitment to investing in equity solutions and maximizing benefits for underserved and marginalized communities, the Assembly will explore methods to integrate equity more formally into its daily activities, including the potential adoption of equity impact analysis into the existing committee and floor bill analysis process.” Therefore, Assembly committee and floor analyses may contain an explanation of the equity impact of a legislative measure.

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