Senate Barely Upholds Bush Veto of Rights Bill

The Senate today upheld by a single vote President Bush’s veto of the major civil rights legislation of 1990, and supporters of the bill vowed to return next year with an even stronger anti-discrimination measure.

The Senate voted 66 to 34--one vote short of the necessary two-thirds majority--to sustain Bush’s rejection of the bill. The President has vetoed 16 bills, and Congress has failed to override any of them.

All 55 Democrats and 11 Republicans voted to override the veto. Thirty-four Republicans voted to sustain.

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said the Administration and the bill’s backers are still “very, very close” to agreeing on a substitute measure, and Senate Republican leader Bob Dole promised a White House Rose Garden signing ceremony this week if Congress adopts the Administration alternative.

But Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) said the issue is dead for the year and predicted that Congress next year will pass a “stronger bill” and will have the votes to override a veto by Bush.

Asked if something could be worked out on the Administration alternative bill, Kennedy said, “You can’t compromise on discrimination, and that’s what the President was trying to do.”

The debate prompted a scathing personal denunciation of Bush by Kennedy, who accused the President of taking “the low road on civil rights.”

Kennedy said the veto “contravenes the basic principles for which George Bush has stood” during his long career, adding, however, “When the chips are down, President Bush--like candidate Bush--is willing to divide the nation for narrow or partisan advantage.”

President Arthur Kropp of People for the American Way, which pushes civil rights, said the bill was the “casualty of an unrelenting White House smear campaign,” but Kirk Fordice of the Associated General Contractors of America, said, “I fervently hope that today’s action will be the first of many to rid our society of other quota-inducing laws and regulations.”

The legislation, approved by overwhelming majorities in the Senate and House, would have overturned a series of Supreme Court decisions that have made it more difficult for women and minorities to prove discrimination in hiring, promotions and job-related activities.