Closing the Racial Wealth Gap Act of 2019

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 5360 To require the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System to collect more data on race and wealth, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DECEMBER 9, 2019 Mrs. BEATTY introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services A BILL To require the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System to collect more data on race and wealth, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Closing the Racial 4 Wealth Gap Act of 2019’’. 5 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6 Congress finds that: 7 (1) Between 1983 and 2016, the median Black 8 family saw their wealth drop by more than half after 9 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:34 Dec 12, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5360.IH H5360 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 5360 IH adjusting for inflation, compared to a 33 percent in- 1 crease for the median White household. 2 (2) The Forbes 400 richest Americans own 3 more wealth than all Black households plus a quar- 4 ter of Latinx households. 5 (3) Black families are about 20 times more 6 likely to have zero or negative wealth (37 percent) 7 than they are to have $1 million or more in assets 8 (1.9 percent). 9 (4) Latinx families are 14 times more likely to 10 have zero or negative wealth (32.8 percent) than 11 they are to reach the millionaire threshold (2.3 per- 12 cent). 13 (5) White families are equally likely to have 14 zero or negative wealth (about 15 percent) as they 15 are to be a millionaire (15 percent). 16 (6) The rate of home ownership for Black fami- 17 lies is the same today in 2019 as it was before pas- 18 sage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968. 19 (7) The racial wealth gap is not an accident or 20 the result of inadvisable financial choices by people 21 of color, rather it is the result of the centuries of 22 policies, programs, Supreme Court decisions and in- 23 stitutional practices that were designed to create 24 barriers or to strip wealth from people of color. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:34 Dec 12, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5360.IH H5360 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 5360 IH (8) Adjustments to Black and Latinx education 1 rates, homeownership, savings and employment do 2 not greatly reduce the racial wealth divide due to the 3 structural underpinnings holding the racial wealth 4 divide in place. 5 (9) To understand and address the racial 6 wealth gap, many experts believe we need federally 7 funded data collection efforts with the ability to 8 disaggregate sample sizes by race, ethnicity, tribal 9 affiliation, and country of birth. 10 (10) Analytical tools like the ‘‘Racial Wealth 11 Audit’’ from the Institute on Assets and Social Pol- 12 icy (IASP) and the ‘‘Racial Equity Toolkit’’ from 13 the Government Alliance on Racial Equity (GARE) 14 are needed to provide a framework to assess how 15 legislation will widen or narrow the racial wealth di- 16 vide. 17 (11) Changes in individual behavior will not 18 close the racial wealth divide, only structural sys- 19 temic policy change. 20 SEC. 3. DATA COLLECTION ON RACE AND WEALTH. 21 Section 10 of the Federal Reserve Act (12 U.S.C. 241 22 et seq.) is amended by inserting before paragraph (12) the 23 following: 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:34 Dec 12, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5360.IH H5360 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 5360 IH ‘‘(11) DATA COLLECTION ON RACE AND 1 WEALTH.—The Board of Governors of the Federal 2 Reserve System shall, in carrying out any Survey of 3 Consumer Finances or Survey of Household Eco- 4 nomics and Decisionmaking, including the collection 5 of localized data, collect information on household 6 assets and debt disaggregated by respondent race, 7 ethnicity, tribal affiliation, and ancestral origin.’’. 8 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:34 Dec 12, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H5360.IH H5360 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS