[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 153 (Thursday, September 28, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1858]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




[[Page E 1858]]


             ANOTHER ATTACK ON ANTIDISCRIMINATION PROGRAMS

                                 ______


                        HON. WILLIAM (BILL) CLAY

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 27, 1995

  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, the fight for fair housing is far from over. 
But tragically, those Americans who suffer the indignities of housing 
discrimination are about to become the victims of an unnecessary 
bureaucratic nightmare. The legislation moving all fair-housing 
enforcement from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to the 
Department of Justice is a travesty of justice.
  When will the leadership of this Congress halt its attack on programs 
enacted to end discrimination against blacks and Latinos?
  I would like to share with my colleagues a timely editorial which 
appeared yesterday's St. Louis Post Dispatch.

                  HUD May Lose Fair-Housing Functions

       The Senate may take up as early as today a proposal to give 
     the Justice Department fair-housing enforcement 
     responsibilities that it doesn't want and shouldn't be 
     required to accept.
       Up to now, the Department of Housing and Urban Development 
     has been the lead agency in enforcing this section, known as 
     Title VIII, of the Civil Rights Act. HUD is charged with 
     investigating fair-housing complaints and seeking voluntary 
     conciliation in each case. The idea is to settle disputes 
     before they reach litigation and work with the housing 
     industry for voluntary compliance with the law.
       The HUD appropriations bill in the Senate includes a rider 
     to shift all fair-housing enforcement to the Justice 
     Department. Assistant Attorney General Andrew Fois has urged 
     the Senate to reject this change, and he is right.
       He notes that his department is being asked to undertake a 
     new function for which it is ill equipped. The new 
     responsibilities would require the agency to set up a 
     bureaucracy to handle the nearly 10,000 fair-housing 
     complaints filed annually. Moreover, Mr. Fois notes that 
     these changes would take time and might harm victims of 
     housing discrimination.
       The bill also would prevent HUD from addressing insurances 
     red-lining, a problem that the agency has pursued as part of 
     its fair-housing responsibilities. The Senate bill says that, 
     at the end of this month, HUD would be barred from continuing 
     settlement negotiations in current fair-housing and insurance 
     red-lining cases.
       HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros argues that both housing bias 
     and red-lining are major problems in urban areas. He cited 
     HUD's role in housing-bias cases in Missouri, Mississippi and 
     California in trying to bolster his argument for keeping 
     fair-housing functions under HUD's umbrella.
       Typically, Senate Republicans held no hearings or made no 
     analysis before voting in the Appropriations Committee 
     earlier this month to strip HUD of its fair-housing 
     responsibilities. The GOP-controlled Senate may well ignore 
     Mr. Cisneros' advice even though these riders would do 
     unnecessary harm to victims of housing bias and insurance 
     red-lining.

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