Leave It as It Is

Leave it as it is, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole says of the presidential executive order that tells federal contractors that they must hire women and minorities. Good advice. Leave as is an order that has been enforced by every President since Lyndon B. Johnson, that has opened many doors of opportunity and is now accepted as good for business by many corporations.

Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III wants to change the executive order because, he says, its call for goals and timetables to recruit and promote women and minorities really means discriminatory quotas. He wants a new order that would make affirmative action plans voluntary so long as they do not discriminate against anyone. That is patently impossible; if one person gets a job or promotion, odds are that someone else will feel he was unfairly passed over. Fortunately, enough members of the Domestic Policy Council, which is composed of Cabinet secretaries and other key federal officials, opposed Meese to block council endorsement of the change. They understand that the government must stand behind affirmative action if it is to remain a meaningful tool for ending discrimination.

So instead of recommending Meese’s change, the council will send what is called “an option paper” to President Reagan. He can choose Meese’s plan, he can direct a rules change that prohibits mandatory quotas or he can issue a new order that prohibits quotas. The second and third alternatives are better than Meese’s plan, but there should be a fourth alternative: The President could decide to drop the debate by doing nothing, thus letting the existing order stand.

At least the policy council’s internal disagreement places the decision squarely where it should be--with the President. The only clamor for turning the government’s back on 20 years of federal support for the aspirations of minorities and women seems to be coming from within his own Administration. President Reagan will find many business leaders uncomfortable with a change and vulnerable to reverse discrimination lawsuits because they want to go on bringing in people with different points of view.

Affirmative action works. Leave it as it is, Mr. President.