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Volume 2 Number 6
COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS FUNDS C1JT
The formerly independent, now discredited, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, has been reputed once again by a bipartisan Congress. The Senate has reduced the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights' fiscal year 1988 budget from $7.5 million to $5. 9, and the [louse has voted to cut off all funds to the agency. A conference committee will meet before the end of this session to work out a compromise. The Senate proposal continues the earmarks and restrictions placed on the Commission last year. Funds are earmarked for regional offices ($2.2 million) and for monitoring of civil rights enforcement activities of Federal departments and agencies. Commissioners are limited to 75 billable days, with the exception of the Chair who is permitted 125 days. Assistants to Commissioners are limited to 150 billable days. Senator Frank Lautenberg (D NJ) stated that Senators were "acting out of frustration with the commission. We're definitely not happy with the way the commission is functioning" (New York Times, Sept. 24, 1987).
Clarence Pendleton, Commission Chair, stated: We're getting punished and we did everything Congress asked of us. We don't have any friends on Capitol Hill, Republican or Democratic. This is a bipartisan hanging" (New York Times, Sept. 24, 1987).
The General Accounting Office recently released a report which clearly documents the decline in Commission productivity since 1983:
The number of publications issued each year by the new Commission has declined significantly compared to the number issued by the old Commission. The old Commission issued an average of about 51 publications each year; the new Commission issued about 13. Of the 353 publications we identified as issued from 1978 to 1986, 316 were issued by the old Commission. Of the 37 publications issued by the new Commission, 12 were the result of projects started by the old Commission, and 13 were the result of projects started by the new Commission.
  
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