[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 35 (Tuesday, March 18, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H1043-H1044]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               ENDING FEDERAL RACE AND GENDER PREFERENCES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 21, 1997, the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Canady] is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CANADY of Florida. Mr. Speaker, this afternoon I rise to address 
legislation I will soon introduce to end

[[Page H1044]]

the use of race and gender preferences by the Federal Government in 
Federal employment, Federal contracting and in the administration of 
other Federal programs.
  The principles of equal treatment and nondiscrimination on which this 
legislation is based, are principles which are at the heart of the 
American experience. They embody an ideal which generations of 
Americans have honored and sought to realize, an ideal to which we as a 
people have long aspired, but an ideal which we have never fully 
attained in our life as a nation.
  The first Justice Harlan once said, ``Our constitution is color-
blind. The law regards man as man and takes no account of his 
surroundings or of his color when his civil rights as guaranteed by the 
supreme law of the land are involved.''
  With the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Congress 
established a national policy against discrimination based on race and 
sex. It is the supreme irony of the modern civil rights movement that 
this crowning achievement was soon followed by the creation of a system 
of preferences based on race and gender, a system contrived first by 
administrative agencies and the Federal courts and then accepted and 
expanded by this Congress.
  The 1964 Civil Rights Act constituted an unequivocal statement that 
Americans should be treated as individuals and not as members of racial 
or gender groups, an unequivocal statement that no American should be 
subject to discrimination, which Senator Hubert Humphrey, the chief 
Senate sponsor of the legislation, defined as a distinction in 
treatment given to different individuals because of their race.
  The system of preferences is based on the notion that we can only 
overcome our history of discrimination by practicing discrimination. 
Those who support preferences believe that to guarantee the equitable 
apportionment of opportunities, Americans must be divided, sorted, and 
classified by race and gender. They assert that it is a responsibility 
of the Government not to create a level playing field for all 
Americans, but to determine outcomes based on race and gender.
  My legislation to end preferences rejects this vision of America. It 
would overturn the status quo of race and gender preferences and return 
to the principles on which the 1964 Civil Rights Act was based. In 
place of group rights, it would establish respect for individual 
rights.
  It is important to note that this legislation does not affect our 
comprehensive regime of antidiscrimination laws. All forms of racial 
and sex-based discrimination that are illegal under current law would 
remain illegal.
  It is also important to understand that the bill draws an important 
distinction between preferential treatment and affirmative action. 
Preferential treatment is prohibited, and affirmative action, as 
originally conceived, is permitted and expressly protected.
  Under the legislation, the Government may continue affirmative action 
in the form of vigorous outreach and recruitment efforts. Steps taken 
to increase the size of the applicant pool for a contracting or 
employment opportunity, including steps targeted at women and 
minorities, are permissible, so long as at the decision stage all 
applicants are judged in a nondiscriminatory manner; that is, without 
regard to their race or sex.
  Those who support the use of preferences have the burden of 
explaining why anyone should receive an advantage of any kind based on 
race or gender. Quite simply, they have the burden of explaining why it 
is just for the Government to discriminate.
  The supporters of preferences based on race and gender need to face 
the truth. The truth is that the system of preferences unfairly denies 
opportunities to those who have been guilty of no wrongdoing, simply 
because of their race or gender, while granting benefits to individuals 
who are not victims of discriminatory conduct.
  The truth is that the existence of the system of race and gender 
preferences unfairly casts a cloud over the accomplishments of 
individuals who are members of favored groups and deprives those 
individuals of the full measure of respect they are due for their 
individual achievements.
  The truth is that the system of race and gender preferences sends a 
message from our Government to the American people that we should 
continue to think along race and gender lines, a message which only 
reinforces prejudice and discrimination in our society.
  We should recognize once and for all that each American has the right 
to be treated by our Government not as a member of a particular race or 
gender group but as an individual American citizen equal in the eyes of 
the law. This Congress should end the unfair system of race and gender 
preferences and we should do it now.

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