[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 100 (Tuesday, July 9, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H7117-H7118]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE DOLE BOYCOTTING NAACP CONVENTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia [Ms. Norton] is 
recognized during morning business for 5 minutes.

[[Page H7118]]

  Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, Mr. Bush and Mr. Reagan both went to the 
conventions of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored 
People. Why is Mr. Dole boycotting this organization?
  I come to the floor not to castigate the putative nominee but to ask 
him to change his mind. Could it be that the Dole-Canady bill is what 
is keeping Mr. Dole from attending the convention? That bill, of 
course, would abolish virtually all forms of affirmative action, and it 
is a tough sell to the NAACP audience.
  On the other hand, I am certain that Mr. Dole would get a very polite 
reception. After all, it was he who saved goals and timetables in the 
1980's. Throughout his career he has been a strong supporter of civil 
rights. It is certainly important that anyone seeking the Presidency of 
the United States, upon the invitation of the premier grassroots civil 
rights organization in the country, accept that invitation.
  To be sure, the Dole-Canady bill is a grave disappointment to civil 
rights supporters. The bill is unnecessary, given what the Supreme 
Court has done to affirmative action. In order to apply goals and 
timetables, for example, with respect to women and minorities, there 
has to be a compelling government interest and goals have to be 
narrowly tailored, and so far we have not come upon that case, although 
we surely hope we will soon.
  The Dole-Canady bill would not even permit affirmative action when 
that very narrow test is met, and it would not even allow the Supreme 
Court to use goals and timetables, for example, if the Court finds that 
a company had deliberately excluded women because they were women or 
had deliberately excluded blacks because they were blacks. The Court 
would be shorn of the ability to monitor progress in making up for that 
discrimination through the use of goals and timetables.
  Interestingly, business says it is going to continue to do 
affirmative action anyway because it knows that it lives in a country 
where increasingly women and minorities are the majority in the work 
force. And, of course, business has used goals and timetables precisely 
because they protect business from liability. To the extent that they 
are correcting their own discriminatory practices, they do not face the 
certain probability of a lawsuit.
  Most disappointingly, the Dole-Canady bill would set us back decades 
because it would allow the exclusion of women for certain jobs based on 
privacy concerns. Been there, done that, overcome that hurdle, do not 
need to go there again.
  This is a disquieting time for race relations in this country. There 
is a spate of torching of black churches. This is the time for any man 
or woman who wishes to lead this country to go to black people and 
reassure them and their premier organization that the laws will be 
followed and that the laws will be executed fairly.
  I come not to praise Mr. Dole and not yet to criticize him, because 
the convention is not over, but to say that I think there is still time 
to go and make an appearance before the NAACP to help dissolve some of 
the terrible racial polarization that is building up on both sides, 
because if he does become President, he will surely have to use that 
bully pulpit in order to try to do what he can on his watch, should it 
be his watch, to bring this country together racially.
  We are all too comfortable in our black and our white sides of the 
country. This is one country. We have to come together and say that. 
Read my lips, we are all Americans. This is one country. Anyone who 
wants to be President of the United States should relish the 
opportunity to go before the NAACP and say those words.

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