Democrats in Washington state are advancing legislation that would dramatically expand which residents are presumed socially disadvantaged for the purpose of qualifying for special state business certifications.
According to The Post Millennial, House Bill 2684 would codify a sweeping list of protected demographic categories, such that an estimated 70 percent of Washingtons population would qualify as socially disadvantaged under state law.
Under current statute, the Office of Minority and Womens Business Enterprises (OMWBE) defines a socially disadvantaged individual as someone who has suffered racial or ethnic prejudice or cultural bias within American society due to group identity, stemming from circumstances beyond the individuals control, with the agency retaining discretion to make determinations on a case-by-case basis.
HB 2684 would replace that individualized approach with broad presumptions, declaring that women, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, Native American, Asian, Pacific Islander, Native Hawaiian, Middle Eastern/North African, LGBTQ, and other individuals identified by the OMWBE in rule are presumed to be socially disadvantaged for the purpose of state certification.
The bill further sweeps in people whose ancestry traces to large swaths of East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, and parts of the Middle East and North Africa, as well as members or descendants of federally or state-recognized tribes.
In addition, the legislation empowers OMWBE to expand the list even further by designating additional groups as socially disadvantaged through future rulemaking. This open-ended authority effectively hands unelected bureaucrats the power to redraw the boundaries of government-favored classes without direct legislative accountability.
Todd Myers, vice president of research at the Washington Policy Center, warned on social media, Based on this list, roughly 70% of Washington state residents would be socially disadvantaged. One commenter captured the absurdity of the schemes breadth by observing, Everyone in WA is socially disadvantaged except straight, white, Christian or Jewish males.
The timing of the proposal is striking, arriving just days after the US Small Business Administration (SBA) issued formal guidance reaffirming that race-based presumptions are impermissible in the federal 8(a) Business Development Program. The SBA stressed that race-based discrimination within the 8(a) Program is unconstitutional and unlawful, and made clear that it does not bar participation simply because a business owner is white.
The SBA guidance further underscores that the agency does not consider any business owner to be socially disadvantaged simply because they are a member of a certain minority group, adding that no American may be denied government services based on race.
As Washington Democrats move in the opposite directiontoward expansive group preferences and bureaucratic discretionthe clash between state-level identity politics and constitutional equal protection principles is likely to intensify, setting up yet another legal and cultural battle over whether government should sort citizens by group identity rather than treat them as individuals.
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