Sen. Kamala Harris Kamala HarrisHundreds of lawyers from nation's oldest African American sorority join effort to fight voter suppression Biden picks up endorsement from progressive climate group 350 Action 3 reasons why Biden is misreading the politics of court packing MORE (D-Calif.) on Sunday said the federal government has a key "role and responsibility" to play in ensuring equality in the U.S.

"The federal government has historically and always had a role to play in ensuring equality in America. Those are the principles upon which we were founded," Harris, a Democratic presidential hopeful, told reporters in San Francisco.

"Where states fail to do their duty to ensure equality of all people and in particular, where states create or pass legislation that created inequality, there’s no question that the federal government has a role and responsibility to step up."

ADVERTISEMENT

Harris added on Sunday that she supports busing as "one small piece" of federal and local efforts to increase schools' diversity.

"Listen, the schools of America are as segregated if not more segregated today than they were when I was in elementary school," she said. "And we need to put every effort including busing into play to desegregate the schools."

The comments come after a sharp confrontation between the California lawmaker and former Vice President Joe Biden Joe BidenPelosi slams Trump executive order on pre-existing conditions: It 'isn't worth the paper it's signed on' Hillicon Valley: Subpoenas for Facebook, Google and Twitter on the cards | Wray rebuffs mail-in voting conspiracies | Reps. raise mass surveillance concerns Fox News poll: Biden ahead of Trump in Nevada, Pennsylvania and Ohio MORE during this week's Democratic primary debate. Harris accused Biden of being opposed to busing black students to majority white schools, noting that she personally benefited from such busing.

"There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day," Harris said to Biden. "That little girl was me."

Biden called Harris's criticism a "mischaracterization" of his views and said his issue was with the Department of Education administering busing policies.

The exchange reignited the debate over the role federal government's role in correcting institutional discrimination.