Sponsors (12)
The bill increases transparency and potential protections for low-income people and racial minorities by requiring poverty and racial-equity analyses of major rules, but does so at the expense of added agency workload, taxpayer expense, and a risk that definitions become politicized.
Low-income individuals would face fewer harmful effects from major federal rules because agencies must evaluate and mitigate poverty impacts during rulemaking.
Racial and ethnic minorities would gain clearer visibility into and potential reductions in regulatory contributions to racial inequities because major rules must include racial-equity analyses.
Taxpayers and policymakers would get improved oversight and accountability through annual GAO reports for ten years that analyze the economic effects of major programs.
Federal agencies and staff would face increased compliance burden and administrative costs to prepare mandated poverty and racial-equity analyses for every major rule, which could slow rulemaking and delay regulatory benefits.
Definitions and standards delegated to OMB and GAO could become inconsistent or politicized, undermining neutrality, comparability, and public trust in poverty and racial-equity analyses.
Taxpayers could incur higher costs to fund additional agency staff or contractors to produce the required analyses and to support ten years of GAO reporting.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires agencies to publish poverty and racial‑equity impact analyses with proposed major rules and directs GAO to publish annual reports for 10 years reviewing program impacts on poverty and racial inequity.
Official title: To require analyses of the impact of Government rules, programs, and policies on poverty and racial inequity, including the racial wealth gap, and for other purposes.
Introduced May 20, 2026 by Nikema Williams · Last progress May 20, 2026
Requires federal agencies to publish with any proposed "major rule" an analysis of how the rule may affect people living at, near, or below the poverty line and how it may affect racial inequity (with optional analysis of the racial wealth gap). It also directs the Government Accountability Office (Comptroller General) to publish an annual electronic report for ten years, each examining 2–5 federal programs or policies from the prior five fiscal years that have substantial economic impact and describing their effects on low‑income people and racial inequity. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will set definitions for "poverty line," "racial inequity," and "racial wealth gap" for the agency analyses; GAO sets those definitions for its reports.