[Analytical Perspectives]
[Federal Borrowing and Debt]
[12. Federal Borrowing and Debt]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


[[Page 237]]

 
                  12. CIVIL RIGHTS ENFORCEMENT FUNDING

  Federal civil rights enforcement agencies are responsible for 
strengthening Federal guarantees of equal opportunity and enforcing our 
laws against discrimination. To eliminate discrimination requires both a 
proactive effort to promote equal opportunity and effective mechanisms 
for enforcement. Adequate funding is essential to meaningful enforcement 
of legal protections afforded all Americans. The 1999 Budget provides 
the resources necessary to support vigorous enforcement of those Federal 
civil rights laws.
  Since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed 34 years ago, numerous 
Federal laws have been put in place that prohibit discrimination in the 
areas of housing, employment, educational opportunities, public 
accommodations, voting, and programs receiving Federal financial 
assistance. Nevertheless, discrimination remains a real and widespread 
problem. For example, recent cases provide evidence of the breadth of 
the employment discrimination problem. These cases revealed companies 
that race-coded their job applications and segregated minorities into 
low profile and low paying jobs. Other companies terminated workers 
because of age or disability, without offering reasonable 
accommodations. Patterns of gender discrimination or of sexual 
harassment are similarly egregious examples of the need for vigorous 
enforcement of employment discrimination laws.
  Housing discrimination also remains pervasive and real. Recent testing 
in the Washington, D.C. area housing markets showed that blacks and 
Hispanics faced substantial discrimination when they tried to buy or 
rent a home. The studies showed that blacks and Hispanics were 
discriminated against 36 percent of the time they tried to buy a home, 
and 42 percent of the time they tried to rent a home. These results are 
disturbing and unacceptable 30 years after the passage of the Fair 
Housing Act of 1968. Housing discrimination not only affects a family's 
economic well-being, but it is frequently the cause of other forms of 
disadvantage, such as limited job opportunities and increased 
segregation in schools.
  The problems of discrimination are not limited to issues of employment 
or housing. The proportion of complaints based on disability continues 
to exceed 50 percent of all educational discrimination complaints 
received by the Department of Education. Furthermore, over 5,000 
investigations annually reflect that the problem of fighting 
discrimination in our schools remains an important national issue.
  As real and pervasive as illegal discrimination appears to be, 
changing demographic patterns and an American population that is growing 
increasingly diverse will require even more vigilance in preventing 
discrimination and enforcing civil rights laws against discrimination. A 
renewed commitment to strong and effective enforcement will help ensure 
that economic opportunities and progress reach all segments of a diverse 
American population. For Federal civil rights enforcement agencies, in 
addition to increased resources, this renewed commitment includes:
     Greater emphasis on prevention and non-litigation remedies 
          to achieve the objectives of Federal civil rights laws;
     Use of additional tools to increase compliance, including 
          the expansion of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) 
          programs;
     Increased use of technology for better management of agency 
          resources and tracking of caseloads;
     Improved statistical methods for measurement and analysis;
     Encouraging the role of the States through increased 
          partnerships in addressing the problems of discrimination; and
     Enhanced coordination by the Department of Justice in 
          addressing Federal civil rights enforcement efforts.
  The 1999 Budget proposes $602 million for civil rights enforcement 
agencies, $86 million or 17 percent greater than the 1998 enacted level 
of $516 million, as shown in Table 12-1. Programs and issues in the 
principal civil rights enforcement agencies, and the U.S. Commission on 
Civil Rights, are discussed below.

                Enforcing Civil Rights Laws in Employment

  The exclusion of people from employment opportunities remains a 
significant problem facing the workforce today. Approximately 80,000 
complaints of employment discrimination are filed annually with the 
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Increased statutory 
responsibilities, including the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 
and the Civil Rights Act of 1991, have increased the number of 
complaints that are brought each year. Currently, over 20 percent of all 
complaints brought before the EEOC are based on disability, while Title 
VII complaints, based on race, color, religion, gender and national 
origin, total 60 percent of all complaints filed. An additional 60,000 
discrimination complaints are also filed with State Fair Employment 
Practices Agencies. Moreover, increased awareness of and attention to 
employment-based discrimination significantly affects the filing of 
charges with the EEOC.
  The EEOC is charged with promoting equal opportunity through 
administrative and judicial enforcement of Federal civil rights laws and 
through education and technical assistance. Established by Title VII of 
the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the EEOC enforces the prin

[[Page 238]]

                  Table 12-1.  CIVIL RIGHTS ENFORCEMENT FUNDING                                 
                  (Budget authority, in millions of dollars) \1\                                 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                 Estimate       
                                                                                 1997    -----------------------
                                                                                Actual       1998        1999   
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.....................................         240         242         279
Department of Housing and Urban Development, Fair Housing Activities........          30          30          52
Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division................................          62          65          72
Department of Labor, Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs.........          59          62          68
Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights............................          55          62          68
Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Civil Rights \2\.........          20          20          21
Department of Agriculture, Civil Rights Programs............................          10          15          19
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.............................................           9           9          11
Department of Transportation, Office of Civil Rights........................           6           6           7
Department of Labor, Civil Rights Center....................................           5           5           5
                                                                             ===================================
  Total.....................................................................         496         516         602
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Numbers may not add due to rounding.                                                                        
\2\ Includes Medicare Trust Fund transfers.                                                                     

cipal Federal statutes prohibiting employment discrimination, including: 
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as amended; the Age 
Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) of 1967 as amended; the Equal 
Pay Act (EPA) of 1963; Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 
1990 (ADA); and Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as 
amended. Taken as a whole, these laws protect workers from 
discrimination based on race, color, religion, gender, national origin, 
age, and disability.
  In recent years, Congress provided EEOC with only marginal increases 
that have been insufficient to support upgrades to technology and 
investment in alternative methods of enforcing the law. At the same 
time, increased enforcement responsibilities have resulted in a 47 
percent rise in private sector complaints received by the agency during 
the first half of the decade, from 62,000 in 1990 to 91,000 in 1994. 
Consequently, the backlog of private sector complaints at the EEOC rose 
from 73,124 charges at the end of 1993 (the highest level of the 
previous 10 years), to an all-time high of 111,000 in 1995.
  Over the past three years, the EEOC has addressed Congressional 
concerns about the pending backlog and the lack of alternative dispute 
resolution methods by making a fundamental shift in its approach to its 
business. Among the most significant changes are: the development of 
national and local priority issues; the implementation of a targeted and 
prioritized charge processing system for private sector cases; and 
encouraging the use of settlement at all stages of processing, including 
the use of mediation. Two years after implementing the priority charge 
handling procedures, EEOC has reduced it charge inventory 40 percent--
from 111,000 pending charges at the end of the third quarter of 1995 
(just prior to implementation) to 64,000 pending charges at the end of 
1997. However, under EEOC's new charge prioritization system, it is now 
faced with a more complex caseload that is approximately 70 percent 
category ``B'' charges (those with potential merit requiring extensive 
investigation). Without additional resources to continue procedural 
reforms, implement greater use of mediation, and invest in technology, 
the Commission is unlikely to make further progress toward its goal of 
reducing the average time it takes to resolve private sector complaints 
from over 9.4 months to 6 months by the end of 2000.
  Finally, the budget proposes $13 million for an enhanced mediation 
program that would double the number of complaints eligible for EEOC's 
alternative dispute resolution program in 1999. Voluntary mediation is 
an effective method of complaint resolution that can be used in 
enforcement efforts. EEOC currently uses some of its trained 
investigators to mediate, but this diverts scarce investigative 
resources from cases that do not lend themselves to mediation. While 
volunteers have also been used since the program's inception in 1996, 
EEOC will need to use more experienced and credible mediators in the 
future. Through the use of contract mediators, EEOC would encourage 
employer participation by addressing employers' concerns about perceived 
bias of EEOC staff.
  Discrimination by Federal contractors is the subject of a separate 
enforcement effort conducted by the Department of Labor's Office of 
Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP). OFCCP is responsible for 
ensuring nondiscrimination in employment based on race, sex, religion, 
color, national origin, disability or veteran status by more than 
200,000 Federal contractors and subcontractors with a total workforce of 
approximately 22 million people. It assures that Federal contractors and 
subcontractors take affirmative action in hiring and the advancement of 
minorities and women under the authority of Executive Orders 11246 and 
11375. It also enforces the affirmative action and nondiscrimination 
provisions of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and, as an agent of the 
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Americans With Disabilities 
Act of 1990. It ensures that contractors comply with the provisions of 
the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974 providing 
affirmative action by Federal contractors to employ, and advance in 
employment, special disabled and Vietnam era veterans.
  The 1999 Budget includes funds to continue OFCCP's Fair Enforcement 
Initiative which began in 1998. The Fair Enforcement Initiative includes 
a streamlined

[[Page 239]]

tiered compliance review process which reduces contractor burden while 
enabling the agency to target the most serious violations. The tiered 
review process also will enable OFCCP to reach more of the contractor 
universe, resulting in a 10 percent increase in 1999 in the number of 
compliance reviews conducted. In addition, through the completion of 
various regulatory changes, OFCCP will reduce contractor burden by at 
least 30 percent. OFCCP will modernize its computer systems in order to 
streamline internal procedures permitting the agency, for example, to 
accept electronically submitted reports from contractors. The Fair 
Enforcement Initiative, which includes technical compliance assistance, 
will increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the agency while 
addressing the persistent problem of systemic discrimination in the 
workplace.
  The Department of Labor (DOL) also operates numerous employment and 
training programs that seek to enhance the skills and abilities of the 
nation's workforce. To ensure that these programs are administered in a 
non-discriminatory manner, the Civil Rights Center (CRC) at the 
Department of Labor is responsible for enforcing the Federal statutes 
and regulations that prohibit discrimination in all DOL financial 
assistance programs and prohibit discrimination on the basis of 
disability by certain public entities and in activities conducted by 
DOL. CRC employs a proactive approach towards reducing discrimination, 
by promoting voluntary compliance with existing non-discrimination laws 
through education and technical assistance to mitigate the number of 
complaint filings. To further reduce complaint workload, CRC plans to 
expand the number of technical assistance visits made to the States to 
ensure voluntary compliance. The CRC also intends to encourage the 
States to promote the use of alternative dispute resolution in complaint 
processing programs at the state level. Methods of Administration (MOA) 
agreements which are signed by the States as a condition of receiving 
employment and training funds have also been an effective tool in 
assisting States in addressing discrimination by ensuring that uniform 
systems are in place to enforce applicable nondiscrimination laws.

 Combating Housing Discrimination and Promoting Fair Housing Activities

  Despite 30 years of laws and regulations prohibiting housing 
discrimination, fair housing audits continue to show high indices of 
discrimination, and mortgage lenders reject minority applicants at 
higher rates than white applicants. Builders continue to construct 
housing inaccessible to disabled persons in violation of the Fair 
Housing Act.
  The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), along with the 
Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice, has overall 
responsibility for the promotion of fair housing and enforcement of the 
Fair Housing Act of 1968, as amended, which prohibits discrimination on 
the basis of race, color, gender, religion, national origin, disability 
or familial status in the sale or rental, provision of brokerage 
services, or financing of housing. The Office of Fair Housing and Equal 
Opportunity (FHEO) administers two grant programs: the Fair Housing 
Assistance Program (FHAP), which provides financial assistance to 
supplement enforcement activities of States and localities which have 
passed laws substantially equivalent to Federal fair housing laws; and 
the Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP), which is a competitive 
grant program that provides funding to private fair housing groups to 
carry out activities that assist in enforcement and furthering 
compliance with the Fair Housing Act. These fair housing activities are 
designed to ensure citizens the freedom and dignity of choosing where to 
live.
  At the State and local government level, agencies with laws equivalent 
to the Federal Fair Housing Act are estimated to increase from 78 in 
1997 to 85 in 1999. 1999 funding for the FHAP program is proposed at $23 
million, an $8 million increase over the 1998 level, to support 
additional State and local fair housing organizations that will meet the 
needs of currently underserved populations and will be used for joint 
investigations and enforcement activities.
  The 1999 Budget also proposes $10 million for a targeted, audit-based 
enforcement initiative that would raise the Nation's and communities' 
awareness of the extent of discrimination through focused and publicly 
released audit results and subsequent enforcement actions. Paired 
testing, in which otherwise identical white and minority testers 
approach realtors or landlords, is a particularly effective method of 
detecting housing discrimination. This initiative provides for non-
profit housing organizations to undertake audit-based fair housing 
enforcement in 20 areas nationwide to develop local indices of 
discrimination, to identify and pursue violations of fair housing laws, 
and to promote new community fair housing enforcement initiatives. The 
Administration believes that this systematic and focused strategy, 
replicated across the country, could substantially aid in detecting and 
reducing levels of housing discrimination. The 1999 budget also includes 
a $4 million increase in flexible funding for fair housing initiatives, 
to strengthen Secretary Cuomo's ``One America'' initiative, including 
his pledge to double the number of enforcement actions taken by HUD on 
discrimination complaints. In total, the 1999 Budget proposes $52 
million for fair housing activities to enable HUD to meet its goals of 
reducing discrimination and ensuring equal opportunity in housing.

         Enforcing Civil Rights in Education and Health Programs

  Although much progress fighting discrimination in our schools has been 
made in the past three decades, the reality of discrimination--sometimes 
flagrant--remains. Investigations of over 5,000 cases annually by the 
Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights reveal that 
discriminatory tracking and assessment practices continue, to the 
detriment of hundreds of thousands of minority, limited English 
proficient, dis

[[Page 240]]

abled, and female students. Additionally, instances of racial and sexual 
harassment continue as pervasive problems that must be addressed.
  The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the Department of Education is 
charged with ensuring equal access to education and promoting 
educational excellence throughout the Nation through vigorous 
enforcement of civil rights laws and regulations. These laws are: Title 
VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (prohibiting race, color and national 
origin discrimination); Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 
(prohibiting sex discrimination); Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act 
of 1972 (prohibiting disability discrimination); Age Discrimination Act 
of 1975); and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 
(prohibiting disability discrimination in State and local government 
services). Also, OCR enforces civil rights provisions in Title V, Part 
A, of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (the Magnet Schools 
Assistance program), and provides technical assistance to Federal award 
recipients and beneficiaries, the public and other organizations in an 
attempt to obtain voluntary compliance with civil rights laws.
  OCR focuses on a range of issues: discrimination against minorities in 
special education and remedial courses; discrimination against 
minorities in math and science and other advanced placement courses; 
disability discrimination; access to programs for limited English 
proficient (LEP) students; racial and sexual harassment; discrimination 
in the use of tests and assessments; discrimination in higher education 
admissions and the appropriate use of affirmative action; gender equity 
in athletics; and higher education and elementary and secondary school 
desegregation. On average, OCR receives and resolves over 5,000 
discrimination complaints annually with over 50 percent relating to 
claims of disability discrimination. In addition, OCR devotes over 40 
percent of its resources to proactive compliance reviews of technical 
assistance efforts. OCR selects its compliance reviews based on field 
assessments (from its 12 enforcement offices) of the greatest problems 
of unredressed discrimination. Currently, the greatest percentage of 
compliance reviews are in the area of race discrimination.
  With its increased funding levels in 1998, OCR will hire additional 
attorneys, reducing its current attorney/case ratio in order to improve 
the effectiveness and efficiency of its complaint resolutions and its 
compliance reviews and to expand its technical assistance efforts. OCR's 
1999 budget, an increase of $6.5 million over 1998, will enable it to 
maintain its increased staffing level, as well as to fund technology 
improvements and complete the Elementary and Secondary Education School 
Survey. It will also allow OCR to pursue its goal of building 
collaborative relationships with parents, students, and educators-- 
focusing on preventing discrimination rather than just remedying it--and 
building partnerships with States to address statewide compliance with 
civil rights laws and regulations. A key element of its enforcement 
strategy involves educating the public about its rights and 
responsibilities and creating linkages among recipients, beneficiaries, 
and community groups for the purpose of achieving the shared goal of 
civil rights compliance. For example, OCR has invested significant time 
and effort to include parental involvement in monitoring agreements 
reached with recipients. These approaches require a significant 
investment in time and resources to provide the necessary technical 
assistance.
  Federal health care and social services programs are the 
responsibility of the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of 
Civil Rights (OCR). The OCR enforces compliance with Civil Rights 
statutes to ensure that people have equal access to and do not face 
discrimination in HHS programs, particularly in the areas of managed 
care, quality of health care, interethnic adoption, services to limited 
English proficient persons, and welfare reform. OCR investigates 
complaints, undertakes pre- and post-grant reviews, and provides 
outreach and technical assistance. The Civil Rights statutes OCR 
enforces include Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Section 504 
of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, 
Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, Title VI and 
XVI of the Public Health Service Act, parts of the Omnibus 
Reconciliation Act of 1981 related to non-discrimination within block 
grant programs, the Multiethnic Placement Act of 1994, and the Small 
Business Protection Act of 1996 (interethnic adoption provisions).
  Over the past few years, HHS' OCR has focused more of its resources on 
non-complaint activities and increased use of alternative methods to 
resolve complaints faster. With additional funding in 1999, OCR will 
undertake an increased number of compliance reviews in priority program 
areas to ensure that discrimination is not occurring within HHS-funded 
programs and provide more technical assistance and outreach.

      Government-wide Civil Rights Enforcement and Other Monitoring

  The Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, serves as the chief 
civil rights enforcement agency of the Federal government. It has 
primary responsibility for Federal civil rights litigation and is 
charged with coordinating Federal civil rights policy. The Division 
enforces a number of laws providing civil and criminal protections from 
discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, national 
origin, disability, age, familial status, citizenship status, marital 
status, and source of income, in such areas as employment, voting, 
education, public accommodations, housing, lending, and programs 
receiving Federal assistance.
  The Attorney General has delegated to the Civil Rights Division 
primary litigation authority for enforcement of the Civil Rights Act of 
1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Fair Housing Act, the Equal 
Credit Opportunity Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Freedom 
of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, and a number of criminal and civil 
statutes, including laws prohibiting police misconduct. The Division 
also en

[[Page 241]]

forces Federal constitutional and statutory rights in institutions 
covered by the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act. The 
Division has instituted a successful mediation program in its Disability 
Rights Section (one area where the Division handles initial complaints, 
rather than referrals from other government agencies).
  The increased funding proposed in the 1999 Budget will allow the Civil 
Rights Division to significantly expand investigations and prosecutions 
of hate crimes and police brutality and misconduct, including pattern 
and practice cases, as well as violations of the Americans with 
Disabilities Act. The Budget includes a $1 million increase to enhance 
the Division's coordination of Federal civil rights enforcement, and 
$1.5 million for improvements in information technology, trial 
preparation, and courtroom presentations.
  Finally, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has a broad ranging 
mandate to monitor and report on the status of civil rights' protections 
in the United States. As an independent, bipartisan agency of the 
Federal Government, the Commission strives to keep the President, the 
Congress, and the public informed about civil rights issues that deserve 
concentrated attention, and to appraise Federal laws and policies with 
respect to discrimination or denial of protection of the laws because of 
race, color, religion, gender, age, disability, or national origin, or 
in the administration of justice. In doing so, it continually reminds 
all Americans why vigorous civil rights enforcement is in our national 
interest.
  To meet these responsibilities, the agency evaluates Federal civil 
rights enforcement programs; investigates and studies allegations of 
discrimination; maintains a network of regional offices and State 
Advisory Committees that give the Commission a local presence in 
communities across the country; and educates the public about civil 
rights. The additional resources being requested for 1999 will allow the 
Commission on Civil Rights to address more fully today's critical, and 
still evolving, civil rights problems, including police brutality, hate 
crimes, and disability rights issues. At the same time, the Commission 
has taken important steps toward improving the efficiency and 
effectiveness of its operations. These improvements will help to ensure 
that the 1999 resources are more effective in advancing civil rights in 
the United States.
  Finally, civil rights programs at the U.S. Department of Agriculture 
(USDA) are responsible for ensuring that all USDA customers and 
employees are treated fairly and equitably, with dignity and respect. 
The 1999 Budget increases funding for USDA centrally funded civil rights 
programs from $15 million to $19 million. Funding above 1998 has been 
added to human resources management, outreach to under-represented 
customers, increased involvement of small and disadvantaged businesses 
in USDA programs, conflict resolution activities, and in the processing 
and adjudication of complaints brought by customers and employees. USDA 
will continue to reduce the backlog of civil rights complaints with a 
goal of reducing the average time it takes to resolve complaints, from 
the current estimate of over one year, to within 180 days.