Reagan to Endorse Broader Rights Bill

President Reagan intends to endorse a controversial bill that would partly reverse a Supreme Court ruling limiting the government’s authority to cut off funds to educational institutions that discriminate, White House sources said.

Similar but broader legislation was passed in the House last year but died in the Senate, where the Reagan Administration gave it mixed support. Leaders of civil rights groups complained Friday that the new bill does not go far enough because it addresses only discrimination by educational institutions and does not address discrimination by other institutions or organizations that receive federal funds.

The bill is in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling last year in a case involving Grove City College in Pennsylvania. The ruling said that under 1972 legislation banning sex discrimination by educational institutions, the government could cut off funds only to specific programs that failed to meet federal standards, and not to the entire institution.

Under the latest version of the bill, the government would be authorized to cut off funds to an educational institution that discriminates on any basis--sex, age, race or physical handicap--even if the discrimination was found in a program not funded by the government, Justice Department spokeswoman Judith Pond said.

Sources said Friday that it is expected that the bill will be introduced by Sen. Robert J. Dole (R-Kan.). Aides to Dole would not comment.

Plan Called ‘Deficient’

“This is a very deficient proposal,” said Ralph Neas of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, an organization composed of 165 civil rights groups. “It would leave millions of women, minorities, disabled persons and senior citizens unprotected by our civil rights laws.”

Marsha Greenberger of the National Women’s Law Center said that she is reluctant to comment on a bill that has not been introduced. But she said that if the bill is limited to educational institutions, it would not override the Supreme Court decision.

“They (the Justice Department) said themselves that this (Supreme Court decision) applies outside of education, so how can they override the effects of that decision if they don’t go beyond education?” Greenberger asked.

After the decision, William Bradford Reynolds, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, had said the court’s ruling could be applied to statutes that prohibit other kinds of discrimination by recipients of federal funds.

Reynolds said of the proposed bill Friday: “The Administration supported the compromise bill introduced by Sen. Dole, and agreed to by a number of senators at the end of the 98th Congress, as a responsible and fully adequate legislative answer to the stated concerns with the Grove City decision. There has been no change in that position.”

Meanwhile, House members plan to introduce a bill known as the Civil Rights Act of 1985 that would cover discrimination in all institutions that receive federal funds, not just educational institutions. The bill will be similar to the one the House passed last year.

The House bill has support among many senators, said Bob Mann, spokesman for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.).