Groups Still Backing Civil Rights Bill Despite Pressure from the White House

Most of the major American Jewish organizations are continuing to support a civil rights bill proposed by Democrats in Congress, despite efforts by the Bush administration to convince them it is a “quota bill.”

The administration’s is trying to “split up the coalition” that supports the bill, said Judith Golub, legislative director of the American Jewish Committee.

The Jewish groups are important because the administration knows they have historically been against quotas of any kind, based on the past use of quotas to keep Jews out of jobs and colleges.

The administration’s position has received support from some Orthodox Jewish groups, such as Agudath Israel of America and the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.

The bill, the first measure introduced in the House of Representatives this year, is similar to the one President Bush vetoed last year. It seeks to circumvent five 1989 Supreme Court decisions that make it more difficult for people to prove they are victims of discrimination.

The bill would also allow persons discriminated against because of their sex, national origin or religion to sue for monetary damages. While victims of racial discrimination currently can seek compensatory and punitive damages, women and religious minorities can only receive back pay and reinstatement in their jobs.

To gain wider support, proponents of the bill in Congress are stressing that the major beneficiary of the legislation would be women.

MEETINGS WITH TOP AIDES

But White House Chief of Staff John Sununu, White House Counsel C. Boyden Gray and William Kristol, Vice President Dan Quayle’s chief of staff, have met with Jewish groups to try to convince them to drop their support of the bill.

The three met in recent weeks with representatives of Agudath Israel, the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith and AJCommittee. These were the same three groups that met with Bush last year before he decided to veto the bill, on the grounds that it would encourage quotas.

Agudath Israel was the only Jewish group to support the president’s position last year that the bill would promote the use of quotas, despite specific language rejecting quotas. Agudath Israel fears employers would introduce quotas on their own to deter costly lawsuits.

This fear centers on the provisions of the bill that deal with unintentional discrimination, explained David Zwiebel, Agudath Israel’s general counsel. He said Agudath Israel does support the provisions of the bill that make it easier to recover damages for intentional discrimination.

Supporters of the bill argue that employers did not introduce quotas during the period from 1971, when the Supreme Court’s Griggs vs. Duke Power Co. ruling barred certain practices of unintentional discrimination, until 1989, when the court overturned that decision.

Jess Hordes, ADL’s Washington representative, said Jewish organizations are watching closely to ensure that the legislation results in “safeguards to protect against discrimination and safeguards against discriminatory quotas.”

But the Orthodox Union is concerned that the current bill does not have adequate safeguards to prevent employers from using quotas.

Unlike Agudath Israel, the O.U. is a member of the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council. The O.U. abstained last year when NJCRAC incorporated a policy statement supporting the civil rights bill into its 1990-91 Joint Program Plan for Jewish Community Relations.

O.U. RE-EVALUATING ITS STANCE

But in the wake of recent meetings O.U. representatives had with White House aides Gray and Kristol, the Orthodox group is re-evaluating its stance and is expected to oppose the bill publicly, said William Rapfogel, executive director of the O.U. Institute for Public Affairs. He said the decision will be made by in May.

If the O.U. decides to oppose the bill, it would have the right to prevent NJCRAC from lobbying public officials in support of the bill on behalf of its member agencies.

However, NJCRAC would still be able to urge its 13 national and 118 local member agencies to support the bill, while noting the O.U. dissent, according to Diana Aviv, NJCRAC’s associate executive vice chair.

Another concern over the legislation has been raised by former New York Mayor Edward Koch, who, in speeches to several Jewish organizations, warned that including religious minorities in the bill would mean that employers would be required to keep statistics on the religious affiliations of their employees.

There has been “a longstanding Jewish reluctance” to see employers keeping such records, said Marc Stern, legal director of the American Jewish Congress.

Stern said AJCongress and other supporters of the civil rights bill would continue to back the legislation. But a letter expressing concern about this issue was sent to the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights by AJCongress, AJCommittee, ADL, Agudath Israel and the New York Jewish Community Relations Council.

The wild card issue in the whole discussion is the question of whether there should be limits on monetary awards in discrimination cases.

The House bill has no such restriction. But the administration wants a $150,000 cap and would leave the decision to a judge, not a jury.

HOUSE VOTE EXPECTED SOON

The Business Roundtable, an organization of the chief executives of the country’s largest 200 corporations, had been negotiating on this issue with the Leadership Conference. But talks were broken off last Friday, under pressure from Sununu and Gray.

This administration pressure was called “an outrage” by Steve Gutow, executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council, a Jewish group established last fall to help strengthen the Democratic Party.

“The administration appears to be showing more interest in pursuing racial politics in 1992 than solving racial problems in 1992,” Gutow said.

Both Democrats and Republicans have traded charges that instead of wanting legislation, the other side wants a campaign issue for the 1992 presidential and congressional elections.

The bill is expected to be voted on in the House sometime this month or in early May. Once it passes, Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and James Jeffords (R-Vt.) are expected to introduce the Senate version.