HOUSE GOP NO LONGER SUPPORTS MEASURE TO HALT AFFIRMATIVE ACTION.Byline: Steven A. Holmes The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times Amid continued criticism that their party is insensitive toward minority groups and women, the House Republican leadership has withdrawn its support from a bill that would have ended all federal affirmative-action programs, effectively scuttling Scuttling is the act of deliberately sinking a ship by allowing water to flow into the hull. This can be achieved in several ways - valves or hatches can be opened to the sea, or holes may be ripped into the hull with brute force or with explosives. any chance that the measure will pass this year. Instead, House Republican staff members and conservative civil-rights advocates said, Republican lawmakers will concentrate on seeking to end programs that give preferences in the awarding of contracts to ``disadvantaged'' companies, which, in practice, has mainly meant those owned by members of minorities. The House Judiciary Committee Judiciary Committee may refer to:
The original bill, still referred to as the Dole-Canady measure on Capitol Hill, would have prohibited the federal government from granting any preferences on the basis of race, color, national origin or sex in federal employment or contracts or any other federal programs. It would also have forbidden the government to require or encourage affirmative action affirmative action, in the United States, programs to overcome the effects of past societal discrimination by allocating jobs and resources to members of specific groups, such as minorities and women. by federal contractors. The new version would ban only preferences in awarding contracts. The quiet abandonment of the broad-gauge attack on all federal affirmative-action efforts, first reported in The Washington Times on Friday, was a marked contrast to the way the measure was introduced last July. Then, Canady and Dole announced their proposal at a crowded press conference where they decried government ``discrimination.'' But in the year since then, the Dole-Canady bill, called the Equal Opportunity Act of 1996, has run into strong bipartisan opposition that has been surprising, given the Republicans' control of Congress. Dole's affirmative-action stand has come under fire from some Republican moderates, like Colin Powell Noun 1. Colin Powell - United States general who was the first African American to serve as chief of staff; later served as Secretary of State under President George W. Bush (born 1937) Colin luther Powell, Powell , the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is by law the highest ranking overall military officer of the United States military, and the principal military adviser to the President of the United States. . ``Republicans have been ambivalent am·biv·a·lent adj. Exhibiting or feeling ambivalence. am·biv  a·lent·ly adv.Adj. 1. from the beginning about Dole-Canady,'' said a Republican staff member involved in the issue, speaking on the condition of anonymity. ``So this is not a surprise.'' |
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