Latinos Denounce Clinton Appointment Record

Latino activists turned up the volume Monday on their dissatisfaction with the number of Latinos appointed to jobs in the Clinton Administration.

In a “Report Card on the First 100 Days” of the Administration, the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, a nonpartisan coalition of interest groups and Latino leaders, said President Clinton has not responded to the overwhelming support he received from Latino voters last fall by appointing enough Latinos to influential White House and Cabinet-level posts.

“The evidence thus far indicates that the Administration’s promise for diversity is not being realized for Hispanic Americans,” the statement said.

Latino leaders have wrestled among themselves over how outspoken they should be in challenging Clinton to deliver on his oft-stated campaign promise to appoint “an Administration that looks like America.” Monday’s report suggests the leaders are more frustrated with the President’s appointments and are becoming more confrontational.

According to the 1990 Census, nearly one American in every 10 is self-identified as Latino. Yet less than 8% of the total federal labor force is Latino, the coalition said.

Coalition leaders met with the Clinton transition team shortly after the November election to urge the new Administration to place at least one Latino at the assistant secretary level in each federal agency and to appoint at least 120 to the estimated 1,100 posts requiring Senate confirmation.

So far only 16 of the 324 top White House and Cabinet jobs have gone to Latinos, a total of about 5%, the report said.

Arthur Jones, a White House spokesman, reacted with astonishment. “Their grading is a little invalid,” Jones said. “Their assessment . . . assumes that no more Hispanics will be appointed. That is just not going to happen.”

Jones also disagreed with the group’s calculation that just 5% of the top-level appointees are Latinos. He said the correct figure is 7.9%. “We’re proud of the record we have pursued” in appointing Latinos, he said.

But Raul Yzaguirre, president of the National Council of La Raza, a Latino rights organization, disagreed. Even Jones’ estimate of 7.9% “just doesn’t cut it,” he said in an interview. “I’m saddened by their reaction.”

The report noted that hundreds of appointments have yet to be made. “There is still time to rectify the situation--if the President acts quickly and firmly,” the statement said. The group called upon Clinton “to fulfill his promise for fairness, sensitivity and inclusiveness in the appointment process of his Administration.”

The group applauded the White House for appointing two Latinos, Transportation Secretary Frederico Pena and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros, to the Cabinet and gave the agencies high marks for being the only two within the Clinton Administration with a better record of appointing Latinos than any in the Bush Administration.

The departments of Energy, Education and Health and Human Services matched the previous Administration in appointments of Latinos, the report said.