GOP Plan May Break Rights Bill Impasse

Moderate Senate Republicans and White House officials have reached a tentative accord on a key provision of civil rights legislation, signaling a possible breakthrough in a months-long impasse, Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) said Thursday night.

Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) immediately scheduled a caucus of all Democratic senators today to consider the new plan emerging from day-long negotiations in Dole’s office.

“My view is that progress has been made and a deal is within our grasp,” Dole told the Senate, without disclosing the particulars. Others familiar with the discussions also declined to provide details.

Mitchell, however, was more cautious than Dole, saying only that the back-room talks had reached a stage where a conference of Democratic senators was required to get their reaction to the results of the bargaining.

The new proposal was presented late Thursday to Mitchell and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), a key Democratic negotiator, in hopes of achieving bipartisan support for a new approach to a lengthy dispute over how to deal with employer practices that appear to be neutral but tend to screen out women or racial minorities.

Sen. John C. Danforth (R-Mo.), chief sponsor of the civil rights bill now before the Senate, told reporters that there was “real progress” in the discussions between him and White House counsel C. Boyden Gray, the Bush Administration’s chief negotiator.

But Danforth said as he left Dole’s office that he had nothing definitive to announce.

“It looks promising,” noted Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), a Danforth ally in the bargaining with the White House over controversial sections of the bill.

In his remarks on the Senate floor, Mitchell said that the private negotiations are almost completed and the question now is whether the results will produce an agreement. He did not elaborate.

Dole has been trying for two days to reconcile the positions of the White House and Danforth’s group of seven moderate GOP senators. Earlier, Mitchell delayed the start of debate on the civil rights legislation to allow the Republicans to try to settle their differences in hopes of avoiding a veto by President Bush of the Danforth plan, which the Administration has denounced as a “quota bill.”

There are believed to be at least 64 votes for Danforth’s proposal, but supporters acknowledged that they probably are short of the 67 senators required to override a threatened veto.

Meanwhile, Vice President Dan Quayle said in an interview that the negotiations are getting down to the final details of a proposed bill.

“The President desperately wants to sign a (civil rights) bill, but he’s adamant,” Quayle said. “The big issue today is limitation of damages.”

Bush has proposed a $150,000 ceiling on damage awards to women victims of sex harassment or intentional discrimination. Danforth’s bill would allow up to $300,000 in damages for women employed in companies with more than 500 workers and lesser amounts for smaller firms.

Sen. Timothy E. Wirth (D-Colo.) and other senators said that they would fight to remove any caps on damage awards for women, arguing that women should be treated the same as victims of racial discrimination, who may seek unlimited damages under current law.