Regan Hopes to Resolve Quota Dispute

WASHINGTON — High-level Reagan Administration officials will sit down this week to thrash out an internal dispute over whether to begin the process of dismantling affirmative action rules that have underpinned the nation’s civil rights policy for more than two decades, White House Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan said Sunday.

Regan said he, Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III and Labor Secretary William E. Brock III will discuss proposed revisions in a 1965 executive order issued by President Lyndon B. Johnson that required federal contractors to meet quotas for hiring of blacks, women and other minorities.

Meese and other Administration conservatives have long sought to dilute the directive, possibly by replacing mandatory hiring goals with voluntary ones. Brock has resisted such a change.

Interviewed on ABC’s “This Week With David Brinkley,” Regan assumed responsibility for putting off a resolution of the conflict, citing “personal reasons.” He did not elaborate on the reasons.

When asked if the controversy would be settled this week, Regan replied: “Hopefully, yes.”