Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley says a bill that would eliminate federal DEI programs is an “utter disgrace,” demanding Republicans who back the legislation not to quote Martin Luther King, Jr.

If approved, the “Dismantle DEI Act of 2024” would ban diversity, equity and inclusion programs within the federal government and prevent associated mandates in federal contracting and grants.

Republicans argue that DEI programs “waste taxpayer dollars” and sew “harmful ideology,” while Pressley and Democratic colleagues contend the initiatives are in response to systemic racism.

Pressley blasted Republicans during a House Oversight Committee hearing last week, describing their approach to the bill “as predictable as it is nonsensical.”

“On one hand, they’re saying that racism does not exist,” Pressley said. “On the other hand, they are saying there is rampant reverse racism.”

“Do you all know your history?” she added. “Do you know American history?

The Boston Democrat then connected structural racism to the need for DEI initiatives, outlining historic shortfalls such as how the “original Constitution counted enslaved individuals as 3/5 of a person.” She also highlighted how the GI Bill denied Black Americans “equal access to education and housing benefits, which is why we do not have generational wealth.”

Pressley, towards the end of her remarks, told Republicans to “please keep Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s name out of your mouths.”

“Your perversion of his words and his mission,” Pressley said, “when his children have asked you to stop invoking his name and perverting his work when he was a proud and unapologetic Black man fighting for equality for Black Americans and all marginalized people.

“So you all are entitled to your opinions,” she added, “but not a denial of the facts.”

Rep. Clay Higgins, R-Louisiana, is an original co-sponsor of the bill and a staunch believer that DEI programs are a “sweeping attack against equality.” He believes the legislation would protect “individuals’ rights, liberties and freedoms.”

“I appreciate my Democrat colleague for exemplifying exactly the kind of oppression of freedoms that we’re referencing,” Higgins said, in responding to Pressley. “How about we’ll quote whoever we want to quote? How about that’s my First Amendment right?”

“That’s exactly the kind of baked-in oppression,” he continued. “Like how dare a white Republican quote Martin Luther King. We actually had a congressman say that just now in his committee.”

In the heated exchange, Pressley called Higgins a “disgrace.”

Higgins fired back, “And we will continue to speak freely because — now I’m a veteran. That’s the country that I serve. That’s a constitution I swore an allegiance to. And that that oath has no expiration date. I will fight for it with my last life’s blood for my right to speak freely and yours.”

Colleagues approved Pressley’s amendment to exempt Historically Black Colleges and Universities from the bill’s federal funding ban.

Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, sponsored the bill which he said would also “ensure that federal accreditation bodies prioritize merit and qualifications over identity-based quotas.” There are more than 500 federal DEI initiatives today, according to conservative medical policy advocacy group Do No Harm.

The Biden administration allocated over $16 million for federal diversity training and an additional $83 million for related programs at the State Department in 2023, Cloud said in a release.

The House Oversight Committee approved the bill 23-17, sending it out of committee, on Thursday.

“DEI programs masquerade as fairness while instead fostering division, inefficiency, and discrimination in our institutions,” Cloud said in a statement. “They waste taxpayer dollars and undermine the merit-based principles that have made America strong.”

Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, also got into verbal sparring with Higgins as she took offense to his repeated use of the word “oppression.” She claimed White men have never been a target of discriminatory treatment.

“There has been no oppression for the White man in this country,” Crockett said. “You tell me which White men were dragged out of their homes. You tell me which one of them got dragged all the way across an ocean and told that ‘You are going to go to work. We are going to steal your wives. We are going to rape your wives.’ That didn’t happen. That is oppression.”

U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)