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Dirt on the White Gloves

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The House Government Operations Committee has come up with the wonderfully ironic finding that the Justice Department, which theoretically enforces the nation’s civil-rights laws, has refused to submit reports required by law about hiring women and minorities.

What the committee does not say is that Congress exempted itself entirely from one of those laws. That exemption tends to undermine the report, but it does not mean that Justice should escape justice.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 require federal agencies to file reports each year with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission concerning the numerical goals and timetables for their affirmative-action programs. The Reagan Administration opposes quotas or other programs that it believes give preference based on race or sex. Even so, 107 of the 110 agencies that are required to file the statistics have done so, according to Rep. Cardiss Collins (D-Ill.), who released the report. Only the Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission and the National Endowment for the Humanities have failed to do so.

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Collins, whose civil-rights credentials are not at question, said that the three agencies have placed themselves “above the law.” So has Congress. Congressional employees are not covered by the section of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that prohibits employment discrimination because of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. That law covers the private sector, labor organizations, employment agencies and federal, state and local governments. But not Congress.

In 1980 the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights recommended that Congress specifically cover legislative-branch employees. Congress has been notoriously out of step with the nation in its hiring of women and minorities for professional jobs. Women often receive considerably less pay than do men performing the same job. Both houses have rules banning discrimination, but the enforcement mechanism in the House is voluntary, and none exists in the Senate. In 1980 moves for change failed, but Rep. Lynn Martin (R-Ill.) plans to try again.

Congress should take it seriously this time and clean its own houses before running the white-glove test anywhere else.

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