House Panel Would Shut Down Justice Department : Three U.S. Agencies Warned on Quotas

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 minorities, the House Government Operations Committee recommended Monday.

Rep. Cardiss Collins (D-Ill.), who released the report, said that 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.

Required by Law

According to the report, 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.

All 107 other federal agencies required to file the statistics have met the requirement, Collins said, and the three agencies that are balking also did so from the EEOC’s inception in 1979 through 1983.

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The committee recommendation asks that federal funds be withdrawn “for any agency not in compliance” with EEOC requirements for submitting information.

In addition, Collins, who heads the House Government Operations subcommittee on government activities, has introduced legislation that would allow the EEOC to identify anyone responsible for failing to submit the figures and to prevent the official from being paid.

Shutdown Unlikely

It is not likely that Congress will put entire agencies out of business.

The Justice Department had no immediate comment, but the two other agencies said that their positions have not changed.

“We still believe that reporting quotas and timetables are not required in the law,” FTC spokeswoman Judy Pond said. “Our record demonstrates our commitment to equal employment opportunity.”

She said that as of September, 1984, women made up 54.2% of the FTC staff, including 25% of the professionals, and minorities were 36.3% of the total, including 10% of the professionals. In a class of 36 new attorneys last year, she added, there were 17 women and seven minority group members.

John Agresto, acting chairman of the NEH, said: “We will not back down from our position that race is an inappropriate standard by which to judge applications, an inappropriate standard by which to give awards, an inappropriate standard by which to hire and an inappropriate standard by which to promote. We will stand by that position.”

Eleven of the 16 Republicans on the Government Operations Committee dissented from the report, contending that the requirements for federal agencies are not clear.

They said that while the Civil Rights Act bars discrimination based on race or sex, the Civil Service statute says that these categories must be considered to correct under-representation in the federal work force. The committee has 23 Democrats.