A Civil Rights Agenda for a New Administration
from the Washington State Human Rights Commission
Opportunity: A new Administration will take its place in Washington, DC in January 2009. It will be faced with many problems and opportunities. As the Nation confronts issues of the economy, the war in Iraq, and energy prices, social justice must not be forgotten. The nation is dependent on all its people for solutions and contributions. Discrimination is a drag on the economy; unemployed and underemployed people cannot make their full contribution and are more likely to call upon social welfare, benefits, and entitlement programs. Areas that are more diverse and inclusive are more likely to be economically vibrant. The United States is becoming more diverse. This diversity should be reframed as a benefit, and not a problem. To lower barriers to achieving the benefits of diversity, a group of civil rights law enforcers and advocates offers the following suggestions for ways a new Administration could use its political tools to enhance social justice for all.
Full funding of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
- The EEOC is perennially underfunded, while complaints rise, due in part to declines in the economy.
- Full funding of EEOC Fair Employment Practices Agencies budget, including moneys for employment testing (EEOC currently is not permitted to conduct testing due to Congressional requirements);
Full funding of Community Relations Service of Dept of Justice
- The CRS has become a shell of its former self, while demands for community mediation from awful events like the Jena Six and hate crimes are on the rise.
De-politicizing US Commission on Civil Rights
- The USCCR has devolved into a mockery of what it was set up to achieve—the study and resolution of social justice issues in the United States.
De-politicizing Civil Rights Division of DOJ.
Passing and signing the Ledbetter Paycheck Fairness Act.
- The fight to achieve pay equity for women is not over.
Passing and signing ENDA (employment rights for LGBT people, including transgender).
- Many states now protect the rights of LGBT people to fully participate in American life, with employment, public accommodations, and housing protections. It is time for the federal government and the nation to follow suit.
Ensure that LGBT people facing persecution in their home countries can seek asylum in the U.S.; allow the immigrant partners of LGBT US citizens to remain in the US as married couples are allowed to do.
Passing and signing an Omnibus Civil Rights Act, which would include creating a private right of suit for people under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other federal statutes that depend upon receipt of federal financial assistance for jurisdiction.
Reform the Patriot Act: The Patriot Act included some reasonable security measures, but allowed significant violations of privacy without warrants or judicial oversight. Civil immigration law was used to target many without reason to believe any connection to terrorist activity. The right to a lawyer was withheld for some who should have been allowed representation and the confidentiality of the lawyer-client relationship breached. Overlooking the rule of law at a time that the world needs to see the strength of the American system weakens us, and the denial of civil rights has not made us more secure. Restore habeus corpus and rights of Americans not to be spied on. No secret subpoenas.
Reform immigration enforcement law to accomplish the following:
- Create due process protections, such as notification of immigration charges and access to counsel and phones, during immigration enforcement efforts;
- Require DHS to implement regulations to ensure that immigration detainees are treated humanely;
- Promote "alternatives to detention" programs that are more humane and cost-effective than traditional penal-style detention;
- Establish an ICE ombudsman to investigate complaints and to create DHS accountability; and
- Provide labor protections to ensure that ICE worksite raids do not undermine labor or employment law investigations.
Prevent predatory lending. Many people of color and other ordinary Americans have been adversely affected by unconscionable lending terms, and have lost their homes.
Reduce reliance on tolling roads and bridges because of its regressive economic efforts on low income people.
Restore affirmative action in education. The numbers and percents of minorities in graduate and professional schools have dropped significantly since the end of affirmative action.
Enunciate the rights of women to obtain medical services from pharmacists.
Strengthen federal hate crime law. Keep language that would extend protection for gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, and disability. The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Act has passed both the House and Senate with a strong bipartisan majority. The hate crimes legislation is critical. Although Congress established a federal hate crime law in 1968, it only grants jurisdiction if the victim was participating in a "federally protected activity" like serving on a jury, attending public school, or voting. What's more, the law only covers crimes motivated by bias against people of a particular race, color, religion, or national origin. It excludes the 15.5 % of hate crimes based on sexual orientation and the untracked hate crimes based on gender, gender identity, and disability. The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Act would fill these critical gaps in federal hate crime jurisdiction.
Increase the representation of Hispanics in the federal service. Numerous reports have enunciated the problem.
Extend health benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees, who are twice as likely to be uninsured as their heterosexual counterparts. Federal employees in same-sex partnerships currently have no access to benefits for their partners. Domestic partner benefits present an opportunity for the federal government to improve the quality of its workforce, and indicate its acceptance of all American families. Congress is currently considering the Domestic Partner Benefits and Obligations Act (H.R. 4838/S. 2521), which would extend these benefits, along with the other rights and responsibilities of married couples, to federal employees in same-sex domestic partnerships.
Provide adequate funding for English as a Second Language classes. Many adults want to learn English, but there is a shortage of classes.
Provide adequate funding for special education for children with disabilities. Congress have never provided the promised funds for schools.
Make sure the Census counts everyone, and eliminates undercounts for minorities, people with disabilities, and LGBT families.
Action is needed to bolster the resources available to the nation's primary federal programs targeting the home energy needs of low-income households—the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program , or LIHEAP, and the Weatherization Assistance Program, or WAP.
Move the criminal justice system toward second chances, job training, and rehabilitation for ex-prisoners and those about to be released. End the disparity between sentencing for crack and powder cocaine. End use of the death penalty until the disparities between African-Americans and Anglos are resolved. With the highest incarceration rate in the world, the United States releases more than 650,000 individuals from prison and another 9 million from jails each year. Most are low-income minority men, and most return to areas of concentrated poverty. Within only three years, nearly half are expected to return to prison—in part due to a lack of social supports for reintegrating into society. Many of the nearly 2.3 million incarcerated individuals today will return to their neighborhoods with significant barriers to successful reentry and reintegration. Over half are functionally illiterate or read below a fourth grade level, many suffer from mental illness, and up to 25% have serious health problems like Hepatitis C, tuberculosis and AIDS. After serving their time, former prisoners are entitled to the opportunity to be valuable contributors to the nation and to the economy in the face of these clearly tough hurdles.
Take more efforts to end residential segregation. Research shows that residential segregation, both de facto and de jure, is the most detrimental to the health of racial and ethnic minorities. High levels of residential segregation result in a large percentage of minority children living in neighborhoods characterized by concentrated poverty. According to a Health Affairs article, on average, about 76% of black children and 69% of Latino children (poor and non-poor) in large metropolitan areas live in neighborhoods with poverty rates higher than those found in the neighborhoods of the worst-off white children.
Support efforts for diverse ownership of media outlets. Media outlet consolidation has left many markets with no voice for minorities.
Add source of income as a protected class in federal fair housing laws. Many people on voucher and other social benefit programs are turned away by landlords. Landlords can currently turn away single parents, often women, who rely on child support as a source of income.
Expand the use of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Over the last 30 years, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) has grown into the largest Federal anti-poverty program in the United States. In 2006, 22.4 million tax filers received $43.4 billion in tax credits through the program, with the average recipient receiving more than $1,900. At $4 per gallon, an average EITC check can pay for approximately 32 tanks of gas. However, 7.5 million families eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit failed to take advantage of the program, costing themselves a total of $14.5 billion in tax benefits.
Reduce the use of federal pre-emption that prevents states from requiring large companies to provide health benefits, and prevents many financial institutions from being regulated by states.
Reform the American insurance industry so people who are HIV positive can buy life insurance. Right now, people who are HIV positive and are undergoing the current medical standard of care are living a long time, but cannot buy life insurance.
Shift higher education funding back to more grants and fewer loans, so that more minority students can afford to go to college. Many minority students cannot afford the loans.
Bring back the COPS (Community Oriented Policing) program -- a Clinton administration initiative that looked to cut the crime rate by offering grants to communities to hire more police officers and have them work in the community.
Alleviate the shortage of farmworker housing. People who grow our high quality food for reasonable prices deserve to have roofs over their heads, running water, cooking facilities, and indoor sanitation facilities.
Resolve the long-running lawsuit against the Interior Department regarding lack of accountability over trust funds for Native Americans, in favor of providing Native Americans their funds plus an accounting.
Repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, which serves as the major barrier for federal recognition of equality for GLBT members who are in committed relationships;
Repeal the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy so as to ensure equal opportunity in the US military; replace the policy with full access of the military to LGBT people, so that all can serve their country in the military if they so wish. If the nation is under attack, it needs the services of all its people to protect it.
Repeal the Food and Drug Administration regulations that prohibit blood donations from any gay man in the US, at a time when all blood is tested and there is a tremendous need for blood (not to mention, it is outright discriminatory, because they do not refuse to let women who have had relations with gay men from donating);
Make the Fair Housing Act truly equal by adding additional protected groups to FHA, on basis of "sexual orientation", and "gender identity or expression";
Enhance the enforcement powers of the Fair Housing Act, and state and local laws that are substantially equivalent, to investigate and prosecute discriminatory advertising posted on-line by Internet service providers and companies that provide electronic community forums (such as Craigslist);
Eliminate the granting of any public tax payer dollars to entities that discriminate, including on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, or disability (this means a major overhaul of the Faith Based Initiatives program);
Ensure strict enforcement of the Help America Vote Act's requirements that all polling sites and voting machines are fully accessible to persons with disabilities;
Eliminate ID laws for on-site voting; they have disproportionately negative effects on the elderly and minorities.
Create universal voter registration (national voter registration so that one's voting rights are transportable) and enhance the Motor Voter law; ensure that as many voting places are available in minority neighborhoods as in others.
Cease efforts by the federal judiciary and Justice Department to eliminate the disparate impact method of proving discrimination.
Enact an Environmental Justice statute, so that the concept at the federal level is not dependent on an executive order.
[Version of 10/17/08]
For further information:
Marc Brenman
Executive Director
Washington State Human Rights Commission
711 S. Capitol Way, Suite 402
P.O. Box 42490
Olympia WA 98504-2490
PH: (360) 753-2558
FAX: (360) 586-2282
Toll Free: 1-800-233-3247
mbrenman@hum.wa.gov
www.hum.wa.gov
