Clinton Orders Intense Anti-Bias Program Review

WASHINGTON — President Clinton has ordered an “intense, urgent review” of all aspects of the government’s affirmative-action programs, aimed at protecting those that can be shown to work and jettisoning or altering the rest.

In a closed-door meeting Wednesday with House Democrats, the President warned that the GOP will try to use the issue of racial preferences to slice into the multiracial coalition that traditionally has supported Democrats.

An attendee at the House session quoted Clinton as saying, “We have to help those who deserve help. . . . But we should also be prepared to recommend modifications where there are problems.”

Clinton over the past week has granted a series of interviews with black reporters in which he has made a broad case for continuing government programs that give preference to minorities in cases where discrimination has been proven and the action redresses the effects of that discrimination.