113 SRES 511 IS: Establishing best business practices to fully utilize the potential of the United States. U.S. Senate 2014-07-22 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

III 113th CONGRESS 2d Session S. RES. 511 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES July 22, 2014 Mr. Scott (for himself, Mr. Paul, Mrs. Fischer, Mr. Portman, Mr. Pryor, and Mr. Rubio) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions RESOLUTION Establishing best business practices to fully utilize the potential of the United States.

Whereas the Rooney Rule, formulated by Daniel Rooney, chairman of the Pittsburgh Steelers football team in the National Football League (referred to in this preamble as NFL), requires every NFL team with a coach or general manager opening to interview at least 1 minority candidate;Whereas the Rooney Rule has been successful in increasing minority representation among the higher leadership positions in professional football, as shown by the fact that in the 80 years between the hiring of Fritz Pollard as coach by the Akron Pros and the implementation of the Rooney Rule in 2003 there were only 7 minority head coaches but since 2003 there have been 13 minority head coaches;Whereas the Rooney Rule has shown that once highly qualified and highly skilled diversity candidates are given exposure during the hiring process their abilities can be better utilized;Whereas the RLJ Rule, formulated by Robert L. Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television (commonly known as BET) and of The RLJ Companies, and based on the Rooney Rule from the NFL, similarly encourages companies to voluntarily establish a best practices policy to identify minority candidates and minority vendors by implementing a plan to interview a minimum of 2 qualified minority candidates for managerial openings at the director level and above and to interview at least 2 qualified minority businesses before approving a vendor contract;Whereas, according to Crist-Kolder Associates as cited in the Wall Street Journal, at the top 668 companies in the United States, only 27 Chief Financial Officers are African-American, Hispanic, or of Asian descent;Whereas underrepresented groups contain members with the necessary abilities, experience, and qualifications for any position available;Whereas business practices such as the Rooney Rule or the RLJ Rule are neither an employment quota nor Federal law but rather a voluntary initiative instituted by willing entities to provide the human resources necessary to ensure success;Whereas experience has shown that people of all genders, colors, and physical abilities can achieve excellence;Whereas increased involvement of underrepresented workers would improve the economy of the United States and the experience of the people of the United States; andWhereas ensuring the increased exposure and resulting increased advancement of diverse qualified candidates would result in gains by all people of the United States through stronger economic opportunities: Now, therefore, be it

That the Senate encourages corporate, academic, and social entities, regardless of size or field of operation, to— (1)develop an internal rule modeled after a successful business practice such as the Rooney Rule or RLJ Rule and, in accordance with title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000e et seq.), adapt that rule to specifications that will best fit the procedures of the individual entity; and(2)institute the individualized Rooney Rule or RLJ Rule to ensure that the entity will always consider candidates from underrepresented populations before making a final decision when searching for a business vendor or filling leadership position.