New Bill Creates CDC Centers to Study Racism's Health Impacts and Police Violence, Mandates Data Collection

The 'Anti-Racism in Public Health Act of 2025' proposes establishing two significant new bodies within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): a National Center on Antiracism and Health and a dedicated law enforcement violence prevention program. As outlined in Section 3, the bill directs the Antiracism Center to formally declare racism a public health crisis. Its core mission involves researching how structural racism impacts health, developing practical 'antiracist' interventions (defined as actions creating or maintaining racial equity), and collecting detailed public health data.

New Center Takes Aim at Structural Racism in Health

This legislation amends the Public Health Service Act to launch the National Center on Antiracism and Health (Sec 3). Its job description is extensive: conduct research, translate findings into practice, and foster a national conversation on racism's effects. Key tasks include awarding grants for research, setting up regional centers focused on how racism operates in healthcare, and creating a public data clearinghouse. This data must be meticulously broken down ('disaggregated') by race, ethnicity, language, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, socioeconomic status, and disability, aligning with standards like those in Section 4302 of the Affordable Care Act, while adhering to privacy rules like HIPAA. The Center will also develop training for health professionals and consult extensively with Tribal nations, respecting Tribal data sovereignty.

Think about trying to understand why certain health issues, like high blood pressure or diabetes, disproportionately affect specific communities. This Center aims to provide the research framework and detailed data to investigate the role of systemic factors linked to racism – things like access to healthy food, safe housing, or fair treatment within the healthcare system – and then design public health strategies based on that evidence.

Examining Police Violence Through a Public Health Lens

Section 4 establishes a law enforcement violence prevention program within the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. The focus here is squarely on the public health outcomes of police interactions. This includes researching deaths, injuries, trauma, and mental health effects resulting from police presence and use of force. The program is tasked with improving data collection on police violence (in consultation with the Department of Justice), studying factors contributing to police brutality (including legal and socioeconomic ones), and identifying best practices for prevention, potentially drawing on international examples.

Crucially, this section also mandates studying alternatives to law enforcement responses as a method for reducing police violence and funding community-based research on intervention strategies. The goal is to treat police-related injuries and deaths like other public health issues – collecting data, identifying risks, and developing evidence-based prevention strategies, much like efforts to reduce car accidents or workplace injuries.

Data, Definitions, and Doing the Work

A major through-line in this bill is the push for comprehensive, standardized data. Both new entities are mandated to collect granular information, making it publicly available where possible, to shine a light on disparities and track the impact of interventions. The bill provides specific definitions for 'antiracism' and 'antiracist' (Sec 2) to guide this work. Implementation involves grants, training programs, advisory committees, and regular reports to Congress.

While the intent is to address documented disparities and violence through a scientific, public health approach, the practical execution will be key. Collecting and interpreting sensitive data on race, health, and policing requires navigating complex issues of privacy, definition, and methodology. The effectiveness of these new centers will depend on rigorous research standards and translating findings into real-world changes in public health practice and community safety approaches.