Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 17, 1990 TAG: 9005170637
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A/13 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
"I want to sign a civil rights bill but I will not sign a quota bill," Bush told a Rose Garden audience in a ceremony to honor the newly reconstituted President's Commission on Civil Rights.
The Justice Department has raised the possibility that Bush would veto civil rights legislation pending in Congress. The department contends it would establish unconsitutional minority quotas. Many Republicans have joined Democrats and the chairman of Bush's civil rights commission in contending it does not require quotas.
Bush's press secretary, Marlin Fitzwater, earlier stopped short of saying the administration would veto the legislation. "We are not repeating" the veto threat, he said this week.
Bush said today his goal is to make sure that "affirmative action is not reduced to some empty slogan and that this principle of striking down all barriers to advancement has real, living meaning to all Americans."
"We will leave nothing to chance and no stone unturned as we work to advance America's civil rights agenda," he said to applause from the audience that included many civil rights leaders.
"This administration seeks equal opportunity and equal protection and equal protection under the law for all Americans," Bush said.
He said he would "enthusiastically support legislation" that backs up the principles of removing employment barriers based on race, religion, sex, color or national origin; does not result in quota systems; promotes fairness in the legal system; and protection against harassment based on race, sex, religion or physical disability.
"Our civil rights laws, however, should not be turned into some lawyers' bonanza" that could result from complaints of discrimination under the law, he said.
Bush's remarks followed a series of meetings with civil rights leaders on the so-called Kennedy-Hawkins legislation, which is still awaiting final action in both the House and Senate.
The legislation would undo a Supreme Court decision that narrowed the ability of minorities to win monetary damages for job discrimnation, and would restore the burden of proof to defendants in cases where employers' hiring practices allegedly had a discriminatory impact.
by CNB