The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

SPECIAL REPORT NO. 1: U.S. COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS

APRIL 1986

"[Tlhere [is] no doubt that the once proud Civil Rights Commission[is] in shambles... (Newsweek, April 21, 1986)

"The Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, a member of the original U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, said this week that the agency he serve for 15 years lacks leadership and integrity and ought to be dismantled. (Wash. Post, April 30, 1986)

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, already deeply mired in controversy, faced new troubles in March and April. Heading the list of problems was a U.S. General Accounting Office audit which found serious mismanagement at the reconstituted agency. GAO's findings, which detail abuses in personnel practices, travel payments, and financial records, confirm allegations the House Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights and the House Committee on Appropriations have received over the past two and a half years. The Director of GAO's General Government Division indicated that "the blame for mismanagement belongs primarily on Linda Chavez, the commission's staff director during most of the period under study" (The San Diego Union, Mar.26, 1986, A?16).

The Commission also faced internal dissension as Commissioner John H. Bunzel called publicly for Commission Chair Clarence M. Pendleton, Jr. to resign, concluding that Pendleton's "opportunity to make a significant contribution to the work of the commission has passed." During their tenure, Bunzel and Pendleton have voted in tandem on virtually all issues. Adding to the Commission's strife, was a fracas over the latest Commission report. The report which recommended a one year funding moratorium for minority business set?asides was characterized by some commissioners as superficial and shoddy. By a 5-3 vote, the commissioners sent the report back to the staff for a rewrite.