DATE: Wednesday, May 7, 1997                TAG: 9705070524

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A15  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: WASHINGTON                        LENGTH:   53 lines

JUSTICE CUTS BACK, BUT KEEPS, AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

Fulfilling a presidential promise, the government proposed applying race-conscious measures in industrial contracts only where it finds minorities are getting short shrift.

``The Justice Department has concluded that affirmative action in federal procurement is still needed in order to break down discriminatory barriers that impede contracting opportunities for minority-owned businesses,'' the department announced Tuesday.

``Carefully tailored affirmative action measures remain essential to overcoming the effects of past and continuing discrimination,'' it added.

The new rules, expected to take effect in early fall after a period for public comment, are ``consistent with the president's commitment to `mend,' rather than `end,' affirmative action,'' the department said.

They enlarge but don't materially change proposals President Clinton made last year to help minority-owned businesses compete with more-established companies without imposing ``reverse discrimination'' on white-owned concerns.

White House press secretary Mike McCurry said the president believes that affirmative action programs must be ``narrowly tailored.''

``One way to do that is to scour the federal government and look for the proper use of these programs,'' said McCurry, with the president in Mexico City.

The new rules will rely on an industry-by-industry review aimed at determining where minority groups experience discrimination in the awarding of government contracts.

A process will be set up to determine the level of minority contracting that would exist in a given industry without discrimination. ``To the degree that actual minority contracting is below that level,'' the department said, ``race-conscious measures will be permitted.''

Rules for awarding federal contracts worth $200 billion a year will be targeted to ensure the process is in line with constitutional standards set by the Supreme Court in a 1995 case.

The court ruled in a lawsuit by Adarand Constructors Inc. against Federico Pena, then the secretary of transportation, that not all members of a minority group have a right to government preference based solely on historic discrimination.

Along with the proposed regulations to be published Friday in the Federal Register, the Justice Department will publish responses to comments it received on an affirmative action proposal of last May.

Contracting practices of every executive branch agency will be affected by that proposal, as will affirmative action programs involving assistance to small firms owned by socially and economically repressed people.

The Commerce Department, in its own review, is developing a series of benchmarks - expected also to be ready by early fall - to measure the capacity of minority firms to undertake government contracts in almost 80 industries.

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