House OKs Civil Rights Bill; Veto Planned : Legislation: The measure is designed to fight discrimination in the workplace. President Bush says that it would lead to hiring quotas.

The House on Wednesday approved a major civil rights bill designed to combat job discrimination and sent it to President Bush, who promised a veto on grounds that it would lead to hiring quotas.

“I hope that President Bush will reconsider the unwise and unjustified course he is on,” Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) said following House approval of the bill, 273 to 154.

The margin was 12 votes short of the two-thirds needed to override a veto and pass the bill over the President’s objections. Thirty-four Republicans and 239 Democrats voted for the bill, while 15 Democrats and 139 Republicans were opposed.

Despite months of efforts to forge a compromise, civil rights forces succeeded in gaining just one vote beyond their total on Aug. 3, when the House passed an earlier version, 272 to 154.

“We’re somewhat disappointed because we had hoped that the additional compromises that were made since the vote last time would have picked up some votes,” said William Taylor, a longtime Washington civil rights advocate.

The Senate on Tuesday approved the bill but also fell short of the support needed to override a veto. Somber civil rights forces planned a final campaign to persuade Bush to relent and sign the bill.

“Give us these measly crumbs from the table,” Rep. Craig Washington (D-Tex.) said as the House debated the measure, which had been nine months in the making and softened repeatedly in efforts to woo Bush’s support.

The bill represents the civil rights movement’s top priority on Capitol Hill this year. It would overturn six decisions on job discrimination that created a furor when the Supreme Court handed them down last year.

Provisions range from a ban on racial harassment in the workplace to punitive damages in extreme discrimination cases.

The greatest controversy, however, came over complex changes in rules on how job discrimination cases are decided. They would make it easier for minorities filing suit to win and harder for employers to defend themselves.

President Bush said in a letter delivered to Capitol Hill on Tuesday that the changes would “have the effect of forcing businesses to adopt quotas in hiring and promotion.” He said that if the bill reached his desk, he would “be compelled to veto it.”

White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said Wednesday morning that Bush planned to veto the measure and send it back to lawmakers with an alternative version attached. Civil rights leaders, however, have been saying the chances of passing an alternative this year are virtually nil.

In recent months, they had been holding out hope that Bush would relent and sign the bill. After weighing Tuesday’s missive from the President, however, civil rights leaders sharpened their rhetoric.

“His announced intention to veto the Civil Rights Act of 1990 shows that on issues of race and sex discrimination, George Bush is a Ronald Reagan in sheep’s clothing,” said Ralph Neas, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.

“While his style and rhetoric may differ, his substantive civil rights policies are just as deadly to those who are victims of job discrimination,” Neas said. “Indeed, with respect to key parts of the Civil Rights Act of 1990, President Bush’s positions are even more extreme than Ronald Reagan’s.

“Regrettably, President Bush has capitulated to the right wing,” he said.

There is nothing in the bill that would require employers to hire by quota. In fact, the measure contains a disclaimer specifically saying that it would not “encourage” the use of quotas.

Business groups and Bush Administration officials say, however, that the bill would make employers so vulnerable to discrimination suits that they would turn to quotas to provide themselves with a ready-made defense in case they were taken to court.