After more than an hour of sometimes impassioned debate, the Arkansas Senate approved a bill Wednesday that would “prohibit discrimination or preferential treatment” by public entities.

Senate Bill 3 would repeal language in state procurement proposals that encourage minority participation or require bidders to adopt an equal opportunity hiring program designed to increase the percentage of minority employees. The bill would also eliminate required minority recruitment and retention plans and reports from public school districts and higher education institutions.

Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Jonesboro, is the bill’s primary sponsor and told his colleagues that “racism will never cure racism.” He also said the bill would make merit the primary reason Arkansans receive jobs and scholarships at state-funded institutions.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects people from employment discrimination on the basis of “race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” Senate Bill 3 has similar language but replaces “religion” with “ethnicity.”

All six Senate Democrats spoke against SB 3, saying it would reduce or eliminate opportunities for historically underrepresented groups, particularly Black Americans.

“Considering someone’s sex, race and background when providing them an opportunity is not a handout or an unfair advantage,” said Sen. Jamie Scott, D-North Little Rock. “It’s about a chance to break down barriers… [This bill] hinders progress while denying Arkansas the full potential of its talent as a state. Diversity isn’t just a moral imperative. It’s a practical necessity.”

The bill contains similar language to Senate Bill 71 of 2023, which Sullivan also sponsored. SB 71 passed the Senate almost two years ago with the minimum of 18 senators in favor, all white male Republicans.

Some GOP senators who voted for SB 3 voted against SB 71, voted present, did not vote or were absent from the chamber that day. Sen. Alan Clark of Lonsdale was the only Republican to join the Democrats in voting against both SB 3 and SB 71.

Clark said he supported most of the bill because “there’s got to be a time that we’re just all equal,” but he could not vote for amending a scholarship designed to attract qualified minority teachers to the Delta, a rural area with a significant Black population and a known teacher shortage.

Clark said he opposed making it more difficult to hire Black male teachers because they could help Black male students improve their educational outcomes. He expressed the same concern Tuesday before voting against the bill in the Senate Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs.

Sen. Clarke Tucker, D-Little Rock, also voted against SB 3 in committee Tuesday. He said Wednesday that the bill does not define “preferential treatment,” but the programs the bill would change provide context for the meaning of the phrase.

In addition to eliminating minority recruitment and retention structures in K-12 and higher education, the bill would change the Equity Assistance Center in the state’s Division of Elementary and Secondary Education to the Equality Assistance Center. Its purpose would be to assist the state’s public school districts with “desegregation and nondiscrimination” instead of “affirmative action, program accessibility, human relations, awareness, and desegregation” as currently required.

“These programs were created surgically to where they could have the most impact. This bill is not surgical,” Tucker said. “This bill, to Sen. Clark’s point, is a blunt instrument, and we have no idea what the impact of this bill will be.”

Tucker said the bill would discourage Arkansans from participation or employment in entities that focus on the lived experiences of minorities, such as the Arkansas Minority Health Commission within the state Department of Health, or the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, an African-American history museum in Little Rock.

“I don’t see how you can celebrate African-American history and have items in your gift shop created by African Americans in Arkansas without giving preferential treatment,” Tucker said.

Knowingly violating the bill would result in a Class A misdemeanor. Additionally, the text of the bill would allow anyone “who believes his or her rights have been impacted under this section” to file a civil lawsuit and allow a judge who sides with the plaintiff to issue an injunction and allow the plaintiff to recover court costs and attorneys’ fees.

Sen. Reginald Murdock, D-Marianna, said white Americans don’t need help obtaining educational and economic opportunities and that “it’s an insult to even have this conversation.”

Scott and Murdock both said programs aimed at minorities helped them attend college and complete their degrees. Sullivan claimed SB 3 would not eliminate such programs, but “more people will be able to affect those scholarships than fewer.”

The Legislature is composed mostly of white men, and only four of the 35 state senators are Black, including Scott and Murdock. The other two, Democratic Sens. Stephanie Flowers of Pine Bluff and Fredrick Love of Mabelvale, also spoke against the bill.

Republican Sens. Breanne Davis of Russellville and Missy Irvin of Mountain View both voted against SB 71 in 2023 but voted for SB 3 on Tuesday.

Davis said in an interview that SB 3’s narrower focus, particularly on “equal opportunity” hiring practices, earned her support.

“I think it’s important to be merit-based and hire the best people for the job,” she said.

Irvin said she believes “it’s a choice whether you feel marginalized or not” and “we should all view each other as Americans” in order to achieve “healing in our nation.” 

Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, voted present on SB 71 and voted for SB 3. Republican Sens. Blake Johnson of Corning and Jim Petty of Van Buren did not vote on SB 71 and voted for SB 3.

Additionally, Republican Sens. Steve Crowell of Magnolia and Terry Rice of Waldron did not vote on SB 3. Rice supported SB 71 in 2023 while Crowell did not vote on it.

Sen. Jane English, R-North Little Rock, voted against SB 71 and voted present on SB 3. She said in an interview that she was not comfortable voting for SB 3 without “a little more clarification” about its impact on hiring practices and certain programs.

The bill will next be considered by the House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs. SB 71 made it to the House floor in 2023 but was voted down after several passionate speeches from members of both parties.