Administration Leaves Top Civil Rights Jobs Vacant
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A year after Bill Clinton was elected on a platform that included re-invigorating civil rights policy, his Administration has yet to fill many of the critical policy positions. Civil rights organizations are generally pleased by the direction taken by the Administration in major Supreme Court cases involving voting and civil rights. But the groups are frustrated by the slow pace of appointments. Important vacancies at the Justice and Labor Departments and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have left on hold a variety of issues affecting women, minorities, the disabled and voting rights. Since the nomination of Lani Guinier to head the civil rights division of the Justice Department was withdrawn in June, the Administration has moved gingerly to find a replacement and fill other significant positions at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the agency that handles thousands of job bias cases each month. Reagan Holdovers For months, the agency has been headed by the only registered Democrat on the commission, Tony E. Gallegos, a Reagan Administration holdover. Mr. Gallegos, who was appointed acting chairman by President Clinton, is widely distrusted by civil rights groups, not only because of the way the agency has diminished in stature while he has been a commissioner over the last decade, but also because he headed the California Democrats and Independents for Reagan in 1980. Ricki Gaull Silberman, the vice chairman of the agency, is also a holdover from the Reagan Administration. The Clinton Administration has also not filled the position at the Labor Department that sets and enforces the Government’s policies for awarding billions of dollars in contracts to minority and women contractors. In an interview on Friday, Associate Attorney General Webster L. Hubbell said that the White House would be naming a new head of the civil rights division this week, and that the positions at the E.E.O.C. and Labor Department would be filled shortly. He declined to identify who had been selected at the Justice Department. Other officials said it would be John Payton, a civil rights lawyer and the corporation counsel for the District of Columbia, who for weeks has been said to be the top contender for the job. More : query.nytimes.com |