THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

               CIVIL RIGHTS IN THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION
                              A FACT SHEET

The announcement of Deval Patrick, a distinguished attorney and compassionate advocate, as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights continues the Clinton Administration's active involvement in civil rights issues.

• President Clinton has assembled a highly qualified team that includes the most diverse group of presidential advisers ever to sit in a president's cabinet. Five African-Americans, two Hispanics, and six women are members of the Clinton cabinet.
• A record high 61% of the President's nominees to the federal bench have been women and minorities.
• President Clinton broke the gridlock in Washington and signed the Motor Voter Bill, which expands voting rights for all, including the poor and the young, by creating new voter registration locations.
• The President signed into law the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which restores protection for religious exercise by restricting government actions that substantially interfere with religious practices.
• President Clinton appointed highly-acclaimed civil rights leader Mary Frances Berry to be chair of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission.

President Clinton's civil rights policy extends beyond enforcing existing civil rights laws. It seeks to create real opportunity and empowerment. As the President has said, "The absence of discrimination is not the same thing as the presence of opportunity."

• The Clinton civil rights policy emphasizes justice, opportunity, and empowerment.
• The Clinton civil rights policy empowers people by providing valuable tools to help them succeed, such as:
  • Universal and Guaranteed Health Care
  • Welfare Reform
  • Small Business Assistance
  • Expanded Earned Income Tax Credit
  • Family & Medical Leave
  • Affordable Student Loans
  • Community Development Banks
  • A Strengthened Community Reinvestment Act
  • Empowerment Zones

The Clinton Administration's civil rights policy is broad-based and enforced throughout the entire federal government. No longer does the weight of civil rights enforcement fall solely on one department's shoulders; every department develops, implements, and enforces civil rights policy. For example:

• The Administration argued in federal court to expand the interpretation of the Voting Rights Act.
• The Justice Department Civil Rights Division filed a record 140 cases last year to enforce fair housing laws, a 35% increase from the number of cases filed in 1992.
• The Department of Housing & Urban Development has aggressively fought to knock down discriminatory barriers, actively intervening to integrate a once segregated public housing complex in Vidor, Texas.
• The Treasury Department, working with the Justice Department, ordered a Mississippi bank that denied loans because of race to implement a remedial lending plan for minority customers.
• The Justice Department obtained an agreement from a South Dakota bank that charged higher interest rates to Native Americans to compensate minority borrowers and remedy its lending practices.
• For the first time since the Age Discrimination Act was passed in 1975, the Department of Education issued regulations needed to implement the law. Prior administrations had failed to release the necessary guidelines.
• The Labor Department collected over $34.5 million in back pay and other financial remedies for discrimination victims, an increase of 12% from the year before.
• The Department of Health & Human Services helped to develop language for the Health Security Act that ensures equal access and civil rights protections in health care reform.
• The Department of Commerce awarded 15% of its procurement business to minority- owned businesses in 1993.
• The Attorney General added 10 new staff people and approved a toll-free hotline to respond to complaints under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Justice Department has awarded technical assistance grants to speed compliance with the ADA and has resolved complaints to make public accommodations, courtrooms, and other government and private facilities accessible to people with disabilities.
• The Environmental Protection Agency identified 20 environmental justice pilot projects to be undertaken across the country to redevelop contaminated sites in low- income communities and turn them into useable space, creating jobs and enhancing community development.