Panel Calls for Shutdown of Justice Dept.

The Justice Department and two other agencies should be shut down if they keep refusing to submit numerical goals and timetables for hiring and promoting women and minority members, the House Government Operations Committee recommended today.

Rep. Cardiss Collins (D-Ill.) said the department, the Federal Trade Commission and the National Endowment for the Humanities are placing themselves “above the law.”

“It happens in other countries where there are totalitarian governments, it happens where there are fascist governments but never in the United States of America,” she said of the agencies’ positions.

She said Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 require that the figures be submitted annually to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Other Agencies Complied

All 107 other federal agencies required to file the statistics have met the requirement, Collins said, and the three balking agencies also did so up until 1984.

The Reagan Administration opposes any quotas or similar programs that provide numerical preference based on race or sex.

The committee recommendation asks that federal funds be withdrawn “for any agency not in compliance” with EEOC requirements for submitting information.

It is unlikely that Congress would put entire agencies out of business.