No Push by GOP to End Affirmative Action

Republican congressional leaders said Sunday that they will not press for an end to all of the federal government’s affirmative action plans this year and instead will concentrate on repealing a program that requires federal contracts to go to “disadvantaged” businesses.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott ( R-Miss.) confirmed in separate television interviews that they will not push for a vote on a measure sponsored by the party’s presumptive presidential nominee, former Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas, and Rep. Charles T. Canady (R-Fla.) to scrap affirmative action.

“We just don’t have time,” Lott declared on NBC-TV’s “Meet the Press.” “Certainly not this summer,” agreed Gingrich on ABC-TV’s “This Week With David Brinkley.”

A leading civil rights lobbyist suggested that the move reflects election-year jitters and the support moderate Republicans have voiced for affirmative action. Ralph G. Neas, counsel to the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, also expressed doubt that the GOP leadership had the votes to get the broader measure through the Senate.

Neas, whose organization has been in the forefront of efforts to save affirmative action programs, said in addition that women and retired Gen. Colin L. Powell may have played major roles in the GOP decision.

Women, who have been the chief beneficiaries of many affirmative action programs, would be adversely affected by the proposed change, Neas said. Powell, a black Republican who has rejected overtures to get involved in the party’s presidential campaign, has been speaking out in favor of retaining the programs, and that has influenced a number of GOP lawmakers, Neas said.

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“I get the impression that there are a lot of Republicans who are fearful of a tremendous backlash if they play the race card--and even more so if they are perceived as harming women,” Neas said in an interview.

Both Gingrich and Lott said they remain committed to eliminating race- or sex-based preferences. But instead of pushing the Dole-Canady measure, Gingrich said the GOP has decided “the best first step” is to press for passage of a bill sponsored by Rep. Jan Meyers (R-Kan.), who chairs the House Small Business Committee. Her bill, opposed by most of the civil rights lobby, would revise requirements to say that individuals must be deemed “socially and economically disadvantaged” to qualify for $5.8 billion in federal set-aside contracts.

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The Small Business Administration has considered firms at least 51% owned by African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans and Native Americans to be disadvantaged and eligible.

The Dole-Canady bill would bar the government from granting any preference based on race, color, national origin or sex in connection with any federal contract, federal employment or “any other federally conducted program.”

Neas said he was concerned the House Judiciary Committee might still seek to approve a modified version of the bill this week, despite the statements of Lott and Gingrich. If it does, Neas said the Leadership Conference was confident of enough votes to kill the measure on the Senate floor.