Civil Rights Rules Not Enforced, Study Says : Laws: Panel finds that funding cuts left agencies unable to assure compliance. The level of complaints is up 50%, while staffing is down 20%.

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights said that federal civil rights laws have little meaning today because the agencies charged with enforcing the laws and investigating civil rights complaints do not have enough money and staff to do their jobs properly.

The commission, an independent government agency under the executive branch, released a study Friday showing that, while the workload of enforcement agencies has more than doubled since 1981, funding has decreased.

“Practically speaking, our civil rights laws remain unfunded mandates,” said Mary Frances Berry, who chairs the commission. “Persons entitled to the protection of the federal government cannot be sure of receiving it, particularly on a timely basis.”

Berry said that a decline of about 20% in agency staffing levels, along with a 50% increase in the number of complaints filed, has created such a backlog of cases that a young person could “get old and die” before a case is resolved.

“The agencies in most cases are doing their jobs. They just can’t do it effectively,” Berry said.

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In light of the tight federal budget, the commission is not expecting a large increase in funding.

President Clinton’s budget would have increased staff levels by 6% but would still leave staffing 14% below 1981 levels. Funding under the House-Senate compromise budget, the outlines of which were announced Thursday, has not been determined. The commission hopes that its report will persuade lawmakers not to cut the enforcement agencies’ funds when the budget goes through the appropriations process later this summer.

Berry said she is confident that some increase in funding will be approved. The agencies charged with enforcement of civil rights laws include the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and enforcement branches of the departments of Education, Health and Human Services, Justice, Labor and Housing and Urban Development. They experienced their deepest cuts during the Reagan Administration.

Funding levels increased during the George Bush Administration but the overall workload continues to increase--primarily because more civil rights laws have been adopted, including the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987, the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

The additional laws have given people more grounds on which to file discrimination complaints, which can be based on age, race, disability, national origin or religion. That, in turn, has contributed to a large backlog of cases--100,000 at the EEOC alone.

As the demands rose, many agencies found themselves unable to conduct compliance reviews, which are designed to make sure organizations and businesses are complying with federal laws and are not discriminating when it comes to hiring and making loans.

“When employers know there’s little enforcement there’s no deterrent,” Berry said.