CDC to Create New Antiracism Center and Police Violence Research Program Under New Act

The Anti-Racism in Public Health Act of 2025 is setting up some major infrastructure changes inside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Simply put, this bill formally declares racism a public health crisis and backs that declaration up by creating two new, highly focused federal programs aimed at researching and dismantling the structural causes of health inequality. It authorizes whatever funding is needed to get these efforts off the ground, focusing on data collection, research, and policy development to achieve what the bill defines as “racial equity.”

The CDC’s New Mission: Dismantling Structural Racism

Section 3 establishes the National Center on Antiracism and Health within the CDC. This isn't just a new office; it’s a mandate to shift how the federal government approaches health disparities. The Center’s primary job is to figure out exactly how structural racism—things like housing discrimination, poverty, and implicit bias—negatively impacts health outcomes. For the average person, this means that when your doctor or local health clinic talks about health disparities, they will eventually be backed by specific, federally funded research showing the mechanisms of inequality, not just the symptoms.

Crucially, the Center must set up at least three Regional Centers of Excellence located within racial and ethnic minority communities. Think of these as local research hubs that study how racism plays out in specific neighborhoods and then develop new, practical policies to fix it. This is a significant move toward decentralizing research and putting resources directly into the communities most affected. The bill also requires the Center to hire a leader who has “real-world experience living and working within racial and ethnic minority communities,” prioritizing lived experience alongside policy expertise.

Data, Grants, and the Fine Print

To make this work, the Center is tasked with becoming a massive data clearinghouse, collecting comprehensive data broken down by race, ethnicity, language, gender identity, and socioeconomic status. If you’re a local public health official, this means new noncompetitive grants will be available to help you track and report on these issues in your area. For everyone else, it means that public health campaigns and policy decisions will be based on much more granular, specific data about who is being left behind and why. The bill is careful to note that all this public data sharing must adhere strictly to HIPAA rules to protect individual privacy.

Addressing the Health Crisis of Police Violence

Section 4 creates a second, distinct program: a new division inside the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control dedicated to researching and preventing law enforcement-related violence. The bill recognizes that police use of force, including brutality, is a major public health issue causing deaths, injuries, and mental health trauma. This program will fund epidemiological research into how often these incidents occur and what factors—like discrimination or legal issues—are connected to police brutality.

This is a big step because it treats police violence as a preventable public health hazard, similar to gun violence or car accidents, rather than just a criminal justice issue. The program will fund grants for community organizations and universities to test interventions aimed at reducing or eliminating police violence. Furthermore, it mandates coordination with the Department of Justice to standardize how data on police use of force is collected across the country. If you’re concerned about accountability and transparency regarding police interactions, this program is designed to provide the hard data needed to drive policy changes, including exploring alternatives to standard police responses.

The Takeaway

This Act is essentially a massive investment in understanding and fixing systemic health inequalities using a science- and data-driven approach. While the core definitions of “antiracism” and “antiracist” are broad—giving the new center significant philosophical latitude—the bill’s focus is clearly on establishing concrete research, funding local efforts, and standardizing data collection. The biggest immediate impact for the public will be the shift in federal priorities and the eventual rollout of targeted, evidence-based interventions to improve health outcomes in historically underserved communities.