NEWARK, NJ – U.S. Representative Donald M. Payne, Jr., (D-Newark) is speaking out against a Republican proposal to remove all racial identifiers from federal documents that is included in Senator Rick Scott’s controversial Rescue America Plan. Congressman Payne cited the potential for devastating setbacks to the pursuit of economic and racial justice that he has spent his career fighting for, following in the footsteps of his father the late Congressman Donald M. Payne, Sr., who was a civil rights trailblazer and the state’s first Black member of Congress.

“This Republican proposal to remove racial identifiers from federal records and documents would set back the fight for racial justice by decades, erasing hard-won progress and putting black and brown people in danger,” said Congressman Payne. “The impacts of this proposal would be devastating to our efforts to remedy the damage wrought by systemic racism. My father dedicated his life to the pursuit of racial justice, marching alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and organizing tirelessly for civil rights, and I pledge to continue standing up against Republican attacks like this one that undermine our struggle for justice.”

Senator Rick Scott (R-Florida) is the Chairman of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee. His 11 point plan includes an initiative to remove all markers of race from federal documents, including from the 2030 Census. Removing race from the census would hinder countless mechanisms used to measure equity and inclusion at the federal level, and were the Justice Department to stop using racial identifiers it could become impossible to track disparities in sentencing, and therefore to create meaningful criminal justice reform. The GOP’s plan also has the potential to destroy important and effective provisions such as carve outs for Women and Minority Owned Businesses, minority protections in the Voting Rights Act, critical federal funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and so much more.

Senator Scott’s plan would do damage in countless other ways, including placing an even higher tax burden on middle and working class Americans which Congressman Payne has already condemned. 

The Congressman is emphasizing the need for greater focus on equality and has vowed to fight to stop the GOP’s discriminatory agenda.

Congressman Payne has recently been endorsed by Planned Parenthood Action Fund, New Jersey Education Association, the Communications Workers of America NJ, Laborers’ International North America Eastern Region, the New Jersey Firefighters Mutual Benevolent Association and AFSCME NJ. He also recently announced the support of U.S. Senators Bob Menendez and Cory Booker as well as Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop.