Tennessee Lawmakers Make Rule Change To Ensure No Affirmative Action In State Government Hiring

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The Tennessee Conservative [By Paula Gomes] –

The Tennessee General Assembly voted on a rule change regarding the state’s equal employment opportunity (EEO) plan on Wednesday.

The rule change removes references to women, minorities, individuals with disabilities, and veterans in order to come into alignment with President Donald Trump’s executive order which ends affirmative action in government employment, and also a new state law that forbids Tennessee from taking age, ethnicity, race, or sex into consideration when making hiring decisions.

In the past, Tennessee’s EEO plan tracked the hiring of “protected classes” while analyzing patterns of employment to ensure that the state government was not practicing discrimination.

As a result of the joint Government Operations Committee’s vote, the state’s plan will focus instead on “certain groups in the workforce based on federal and/or state law requirements.”

Starting October 7th, the state will neither track nor publicly report on the demographics of those they interview, hire, or promote to positions within the executive branch of Tennessee government.

Requirements that state agencies make efforts to recruit, hire, and promote women and minorities if underrepresented in the government workforce at the state level has also been eliminated.

The new plan will still track employment of people with disabilities and veterans.

According to Deputy General Counsel for the Tennessee Department of Human Resources, Melanie Koewler, anyone wanting to know how many women or minorities are employed by the state may request a report which will be received and processed like all other requests for public records.

Senator Rusty Crowe (R-Johnson City-District 3) referred to four laws passed last year which prohibit diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices mostly at the state government level and at state universities while affirming that the rule change was needed.

During the committee meeting, Crowe said those laws, two of which he co-sponsored, did away with DEI in hiring, as well as other practices.

According to Crowe, the rule change is not about hiring fewer women,  minorities, or veterans, but about hiring people who happen to be in those categories who are the most qualified for the position.

About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.