Bush’s Veto of Rights Bill Survives in Senate by 1 Vote

The Senate upheld President Bush’s veto of the Civil Rights Act of 1990 Wednesday, falling a single vote short of the two-thirds majority needed to override.

The 66-34 vote ended months of often anguished negotiations and intense lobbying by civil rights groups, which had placed passage of the jobs discrimination bill at the top of their legislative agenda for this session.

Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.), the state’s GOP gubernatorial candidate, joined the victorious minority, all Republicans, in upholding the 16th veto of the Bush presidency, which has yet to suffer a reversal. All 55 Senate Democrats, including California’s Alan Cranston, and 11 Republicans voted to override.

The legislation, which had passed both chambers by wide majorities, would have reversed or altered six recent Supreme Court decisions to make it easier for women and minorities to prove discrimination in the workplace. The Senate voted, 62 to 34, to pass a compromise version of the measure last week, while the House approved it, 273 to 154.

President Bush vetoed the bill Monday, saying that he regretted doing so but feared that its enactment would force employers to “adopt quotas in order to avoid liability” from lawsuits.

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), who led the floor fight against the override, said that the President wanted to sign a civil rights bill but could not support the legislation sent to him by Congress because it would place undue emphasis on statistical analysis of discrimination.

“Americans want a piece of the American dream; they want no part of quotas,” Hatch said. “This bill promises to move America away from its ideals, not toward them.”

While civil rights advocates and their Senate backers promised to carry their fight into the next session, opponents of the measure offered to continue working to produce a new bill that the President could sign before this legislative session ends.

Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) proposed working into the night to reach agreement on an Administration-approved bill that would reverse some of the Supreme Court decisions, but leave others intact. He said that such a bill could be passed and signed by Bush at a Rose Garden ceremony before the weekend.

“The President is willing to go the extra mile” to sign a civil rights bill that would not foster quotas, Dole said. “But he’s not going to go over the cliff.”

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), who supported the bill and voted to override the veto, said he was worried about the image projected by the Republican Party’s opposition to the bill. He said that it is possible to compromise and urged his colleagues to vote to override. Failing that, he pleaded for more time so that civil rights supporters can try to win over “the 8, 10, 12 (Republican) members who want to sign the bill” but were reluctant to do so because they wanted to support the President.

But Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), the key Senate sponsor of the bill, rejected all offers and declared the issue dead for this session.

As the senators debated the override, groups of black and female House members--all supporters of the legislation--made rare appearances on the chamber floor. Seated in the visitors’ gallery were both David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan leader and defeated Louisiana Republican senatorial candidate, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a prominent civil rights advocate and “shadow” Senate candidate from the District of Columbia.

“The President and the Congress are getting my message,” Duke said in a hallway interview. He said that he had met in “about a dozen offices” with unidentified congressional leaders to lobby against the override. “My message is equal rights for all Americans, including white Americans,” he said. “I wish I was on the floor voting with them today.”

Dianne Feinstein, Wilson’s Democratic opponent for governor, criticized him for casting “the deciding vote against this historic measure. Sen. Wilson’s vote represents a major setback for the cause of equal opportunity for all Americans,” she said in a statement to a senior citizens group.

“Today, by voting against this anti-discrimination legislation, Sen. Wilson helped turn back the clock. Without this landmark legislation . . . it will be far more difficult for women and minorities who have been the victims of discrimination to win their case in court.”

Otto Bos, Wilson’s campaign manager, defended the senator’s record on civil rights. “For 24 years, he (Wilson) has voted for every piece of civil rights legislation,” Bos said. “This is the first civil rights bill that he has voted against and this is because there is a segment in the bill that invites quotas. . . . The problem is a fundamental difference between Wilson and Feinstein over quotas, she supports them, he does not.”

Sen. Rudy Boschwitz (R-Minn.), who voted against the civil rights bill when it was approved by the Senate, switched sides on the override vote. Although his decision came after it was apparent that the measure would fail, Boschwitz said that he changed his position because “David Duke was sitting in the balcony. I couldn’t vote against the bill with him sitting up there.”

Although Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) moved to preserve the right for a second vote to override the veto, Kennedy, floor manager of the bill, said that there would be no attempt to revive the legislation in this session.