Topics ranging from immigration reform to predatory lending practices are on the to-do lists of civil-rights groups long allied with the Democratic Party.

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By Brian Friel, National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2007

Civil-rights groups scored a bipartisan legislative victory last year when Congress renewed expiring provisions of the Voting Rights Act. The 25-year reauthorization passed exactly as the advocates wanted, with no amendments, with President Bush's support, and with votes of 398-33 in the House and 98-0 in the Senate. But other than that overwhelming win, civil-rights leaders say that Congress disappointed them over the past few years.

"We were able to get important pieces of legislation through, like the Voting Rights Act, and were able to hold off some of the really repressive judicial nominees," said Hilary Shelton, head of the NAACP's Washington bureau. "However, there was a lack of important issues to even come before the Congress that would actually address the issues of importance to ordinary Americans. We talk about things like racial profiling. That never came up in the Congress. We introduced a bill. There were no hearings, no markups scheduled. A very important issue: There was nothing done about it."

In December, a host of civil-rights organizations got together under the umbrella of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights to agree on issues to pursue in the 110th Congress, which conference President Wade Henderson sent in the form of a letter to lawmakers on January 8. They came up with no fewer than 16 priorities: Rewrite civil-rights laws; improve the No Child Left Behind Act; enact immigration reform; repeal new identification requirements; combat hate crimes; fight sexual-orientation discrimination; end racial profiling; reform electoral systems; seek voting representation in Congress for the District of Columbia; raise the minimum wage; address labor organizing rights; enforce fair-housing laws; end predatory lending; close the digital divide; improve health care access; and fully fund the Census Bureau. "It is not the complete agenda, nor is it in order of importance," said Nancy Zirkin, policy director for the conference. "We're trying to move forward with a positive agenda this year, which is, frankly -- outside of the Voting Rights Act -- something we've had trouble doing."

The community has close ties to Senate and House leaders. Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin, D-Ill., participated in a January 18 conference call with civil-rights leaders to discuss their agenda for the 110th Congress. Voting representation for D.C. could be a potential early success.

Lawmakers in both chambers have said they want to hold oversight hearings on the civil-rights implications of voting and electoral systems, especially electronic voting machines; the agenda will also include stepped-up oversight of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.

President Bush believes he can reach agreement with the Democratic-led Congress on some parts of the civil-rights agenda, particularly immigration legislation and No Child Left Behind amendments. For his part, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., has pushed legislation addressing racial profiling in federal, state, and local police actions. Activists will have to start anew on trying to rewrite a range of civil-rights laws, efforts they put on hold during the Voting Rights Act renewal in the last Congress. But because the rewrites would be aimed at overriding numerous Supreme Court decisions, they would face a tough road.

Of course, each group within the civil-rights community has its own extensive agenda. The NAACP lists 41 issues as legislative priorities for the 110th Congress. The National Council of La Raza is pushing comprehensive immigration reform but is also advocating various education, health care, jobs, and financial services reforms. "It would be a mistake to think that by just doing immigration, we've addressed the Hispanic agenda and it's done," said Janet Murguia, president of La Raza. "It's a threshold issue, but issues around education and health care and jobs are central to Hispanic families."

The long lists reflect civil-rights groups' optimism about this Congress. La Raza, the League of United Latin American Citizens, and other Hispanic groups view the November elections as a sea change in the outlook for immigration reform, in particular. "It feels to me like we're on offense," Murguia said. "We were playing defense last year."

Indeed, the groups are hoping that immigration legislation moves quickly. The League of United Latin American Citizens and the Hispanic Federation sent a letter on January 8 to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., urging them to make immigration reform a top priority for the first 100 days of the session. The Senate is expected to take up comprehensive immigration legislation first; Reid has already placed a bill in the legislative hopper. Hispanic groups are also working with the White House, which supports immigration reform. Rosa Rosales, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said that marches and demonstrations this spring will focus public attention on the issue.

Other civil-rights groups support immigration reform, albeit with different emphases. The NAACP, for example, is worried about job competition. "Our position in a nutshell is that everyone in the country needs to be documented," Shelton said. "Hard-working poor folks are having to compete with those who don't have basic protections."

Beyond a shared call for "improving" No Child Left Behind, opinions about the education law vary. The NAACP is pushing for full funding and for revising the law's "high-stakes testing" requirements. The League of United Latin American Citizens is focused on those provisions that affect students learning English as a second language and on efforts to reduce high school dropout rates.

Because their interests are so broad, the civil-rights groups are working with a variety of organizations to achieve their legislative goals. On immigration, for example, minority advocates have teamed up this month with business organizations, labor unions, and religious groups to promote a measure to legalize foreign agricultural workers and give them more job protections. The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights is joining forces with state legislatures and governors to seek the repeal of the new "Real ID" act. The law places various security-minded requirements on state-issued identification cards. The legislatures and governors view the act as an $11 billion unfunded mandate; civil-rights groups say that it violates immigrants' due process protections.

The NAACP issued a legislative report card at the end of the 109th Congress that sums up the civil-rights community's hopes for the 110th. The Republican leaders of the key committees affecting much of the NAACP's agenda earned F ratings; the new Democratic leaders of those committees got B's and A's. Referring to the Capitol Hill turnover, Shelton said, "There's a better chance we can get more of the kinds of provisions that we support." Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., the new chairman of the Banking Committee, for example, said he wants to review the issue of predatory lending -- mortgages and loans set at high interest rates for poor, minority purchasers. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., also plans to investigate discrepancies in mortgage rates offered to white and minority homebuyers.

Civil-rights leaders acknowledge that, if their legislative agenda is to pass, they must work with the Republican White House and with GOP members of Congress. The Voting Rights Act renewal faced a hurdle last year when a band of rank-and-file House Republicans sought to amend the bill on the floor. Republican leaders temporarily withdrew the measure before agreeing to give the dissidents a chance to offer their amendments. That done, the amendments went down to defeat thanks to opposition from Democrats -- and from Republican leaders, including then-House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis.

"What we learned was what we knew before," Zirkin said. "Nothing goes through without large, bipartisan support, without building your case and building your political networks."

Minority Groups Key Players: NAACP; Leadership Conference on Civil Rights; National Urban League; National Council of La Raza; League of United Latin American Citizens; Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund On the Front Burner: Reverse Supreme Court civil-rights decisions; pass comprehensive immigration reform; renew No Child Left Behind Act; give D.C. a congressional vote Sleeper Issue: Repealing the Real ID Act -- Brian Friel

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