Bush Picks Moderate Republican to Head Civil Rights Commission

President Bush has selected Arthur A. Fletcher, a moderate Republican who was one of his original black political allies, to head the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, a move that Administration officials say signals Bush’s intention to rebuild the agency after six years of turbulence and controversy.

Administration sources said the post was offered to Fletcher and he accepted it. Fletcher acknowledged discussing the job with White House aides, but he said Tuesday that he had not “gotten the call from the President yet.” Because the post is not a full-time government position, he said he sees “no conflict” between it and his announcement that he is considering another campaign for mayor of the District of Columbia.

Unless the current chairman, William Barclay Allen, voluntarily resigns, Fletcher would not get the post until late fall under any of the plans for the commission’s future being discussed in the Administration.

Senior officials said Tuesday that the White House is examining whether and how to restructure the commission when it faces congressional reauthorization this fall. Some Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress, along with key civil rights leaders, have suggested that the commission was so “perverted” by the Ronald Reagan Administration that it should be abolished unless it can be returned to its original mandate as an independent agency charged with monitoring the government’s civil rights efforts.

A senior Administration official said Bush is “committed to making the agency respectable again.” The White House personnel director, Charles G. Untermeyer, said the President views the chairmanship as a “major appointment” and looked for someone “who shares his commitment to civil rights.”

Fletcher, who operates a consulting business here, served in the Gerald R. Ford Administration as a White House deputy for urban affairs.