(AFTERNOON Session, 2:05 P.M., THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 1977) EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION ISSIE JENKINS, DEPUTY GENERAL COUNSEL BUDGET REQUEST Senator HOLLINGS. Our next request is that of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The amount requested is $77,177,000, an increase of $6,664,000, and provides for 2,584 permanent positions. Appearing on behalf of this request is Mrs. Ethel Bent Walsh, who is accompanied by Mrs. Issie Jenkins and Ms. Helen T. Stellman. Mrs. WALSH. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to read a short statement before we get into questions. I certainly appreciate this opportunity to appear before you concerning the President's request for fiscal year 1978 funds for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and to share with you some of my concerns about the current state of title VII and our agency's ability to adequately fulfill its purpose. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is seeking a funding level of $77,177,000 for fiscal year 1978 to support the existing staff level of 2,584 full-time permanent positions. This request includes no new positions. Increases over our fiscal year 1977 appropriation include only that amount necessary for annualized and mandatory increases and an additional $4,400,000 to increase our support of State and local antidiscrimination agencies. RECENT PROGRESS Quite frankly, our Commission had hoped to expand our operating programs next year to further accelerate the record progress we made in fiscal year 1976. During this past fiscal year, we resolved some 82,000 complaints of discrimination during the 15-month period and filed over 409 cases in Federal district courts. For each $1 of our appropriation, we returned over $2 to victims of employment discrimination and, in the process, assisted these individuals in obtaining a more equitable share of the employment opportunities and the economic benefits of our society. The average age of a charge has been significantly reduced in the past year. One year ago, 20 percent of our charges were over 3 years old; today, less than 5 percent are over 3 years old. During the same period we increased our position utilization rate to 93 percent and today that rate is very close to 95 percent. Further, during fiscal year 1976 we have made important management improvements. We have decentralized many housekeeping activities to our regional offices. By installing advanced word processing and telecommunication equipment and increasing our data processing capability, we are making technical progress in coping with our increasing workload. Our partnership with state and local deferral agencies grows more productive each year. Currently State agencies account for about 22 percent of total charge resolutions. Despite these results, the EEOC continues to be criticized—often unjustly. We are criticized by employers for doing too much. We are criticized by charging parties for doing too little. We are criticized by some Federal agencies for our unwillingness to compromise. Sometimes even our friends criticize us for our inability to totally eradicate 200 years of pervasive employment discrimination in a period of 10 years with a mere handful of people. In response to our critics, we would like to point out the limitations imposed on our agency as well as those imposed on other Federal, State, and local government agencies concerned both separately and as a whole with the quality of working life for all of our citizens. Their capacity, like ours, is limited by legislated appropriations and mandates. Despite today's cynicism about Federal responsiveness, those citizens of our Nation who are victims of discrimination have not lost hope in our agency. They continue to file complaints in our district offices at the rate of 6,000 to 7,000 per month. And it is for these victims of discrimination, indeed for all victims of discrimination, that EEOC is concerned. WORKLOAD INCREASES After a record year in fiscal year 1976, and after dramatically reducing the age of our inventory, we still had some 122,000 active charges on file at the beginning of fiscal year 1977. During this fiscal year we will receive an estimated 94,000 new charges, giving us a total workload of over 216,000. With our current resources and with the State and local deferral agencies we can, at best, resolve 80,000 of these complaints. In accomplishing this we will have exhausted almost every resource currently available. Thus, with some resource increase for the state and local deferral agencies requested in the proposed fiscal year 1978 budget and greater in-house productivity improvement, we may be able to resolve 85,000 complaints of discrimination next year. But we estimate that we will receive another 111,000. Consequently, at the end of fiscal year 1978 our active charge inventory will be over 162,000. We foresee nothing within our present and proposed 1978 capacity to prevent this outcome. Title VII requires the investigation of each of these 162,000 charges. Some of these charges will result in complex litigation. It takes investigators, attorneys, paralegals and support staff to assure that all our procedures and systems, already under great strain, don't completely bog down. More should be done to carry out the fight against employment discrimination on all fronts. We want to do more to eliminate entire systems of employment discrimination. We want to do more to provide technical assistance to employers who want to understand and comply with title VII. We want to do more to use the resources of the private bar in assisting charging parties. But as long as our agency receives only 16 percent of the total civil rights appropriations, and as long as there are so many victims of discrimination and so few of us, we are forced to focus the bulk of our resources on the individual complaint process. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission faces the next fiscal year determined that its limited program goals will be met. We emphasize, however, that a charge intake which is by statute uncontrollable demands more than token recognition of the dilemma of the vast numbers of individuals who are victims of discrimination in employment. We ask for support for our programs to enable the Commission to meet its responsibilities under title VII of the Civil Rights Act as amended. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. LETTER TO OMB DIRECTOR Senator HOLLINGS. You covered most of those points in your letter to the OMB Director. There was another matter in that letter that you said if you had some kind of authority, you could even make more progress and be instrumental in being able to handle more of these cases. Mrs. WALSH. My recollection is, though, that the point I was trying to make was that our agency does not have control over those charges which we accept or reject. We must under the statute accept every one. Senator HOLLINGS. I know. There was something else about working with the States. Mrs. WALSH. We do have a 706 program. This is a program where we fund the State and local agencies. This is the one area where we have asked for an increase in the fiscal 1978 budget. Senator HOLLINGS. But it was something else, to allow you to package the cases or something else like that. Someone asked me to see if we couldn't provide that authority for you. Otherwise, you will never get ahead. Mrs. WALSH. That is what we are working on. Senator HOLLINGS. You don't have a copy of that letter? Mrs. WALSH. No, I do not. I am sorry. Senator HOLLINGS. You sent them all to Mr. Lance? Mrs. WALSH. No. I sent one to you, too. [Laughter.] Senator HOLLINGS. That was a good letter. I like someone fighting for the Commission. COMMISSION EMPLOYMENT How many employees do you have? Mrs. WALSH. We have 2,584. Senator HOLLINGS. How many vacancies do you have? Mrs. WALSH. We have done very well. We are 95 percent filled. We, of course, will be affected by the freeze. Senator HOLLINGS. How many vacancies do you have? Mrs. WALSH. 155. Senator HOLLINGS. At one time it was 500. Mrs. WALSH. That is right. Senator HOLLINGS. I have a standing offer for anybody that wants a job; I will get them a job with you. From my State, that is. When they come to Washington they can get a job on the EEOC and make a good record and then they can go to the industry and make a fortune, literally. I am going to try to see if you and I can't work together, and you and I will have an economic recovery act for South Carolina, working on the EEOC. How much money do you ask for now? Mrs. WALSH. $77,177,000. That is actually at level funding. The only increase over last year's budget would be a mandatory increase in rent, salaries, that type of thing. We have asked for an additional $4,400,000 to fund State and local FEPA agencies. Our partnership with them becomes increasingly more productive. For instance, back in 1975 only 8 percent of our total charge resolutions were done at the State and local levels. In fiscal year 1976, 18 percent were done. Currently, 22 percent of our total charge resolutions are done through the State and local levels. We are hoping to bring that up to around 26 percent. There is no question that the only way that we are going to have an impact around the country in discrimination is by getting State and local agencies more and more involved and sharing the responsibility with them. Senator HOLLINGS. Yes. I agree with you. You asked for how much for that? Mrs. WALSH. $10,400,000 in total. Last year we had only $6 million. We have asked for an increase. Senator HOLLINGS. That would be a $4 million increase there. Mrs. WALSH. Yes. Senator HOLLINGS. What other increases do you ask for? Mrs. WALSH. We have asked for none in terms of personnel. It only has to do with mandatory increases. There are rent and utilities. There is a rent increase which is close to $1 million. MOVEMENT OF DENVER LEGAL OFFICE Senator HOLLINGS. There is $270,000 for moving the Denver office of the General Counsel to Dallas? Who is moving where? Mrs. WALSH. That is right. I think perhaps Mrs. Jenkins can give you specifics. Senator HOLLINGS. What is the score there? Mrs. JENKINS. We have requested funds to move our Denver regional office of the General Counsel to Dallas. When that office was originally set up in Denver, its jurisdiction extended to North Dakota and Montana. Our experience has been, though, that the majority of that office's workload comes from Texas and Louisiana. Sixty percent of its workload is from Texas and 14 percent from Louisiana. So we would like to put the office closer to its workload. It could be more responsive to the demands of the court and also save travel costs and other costs. Senator HOLLINGS. I went up in that northern region to speak for President Carter with Senator Abourezk. I am always looking for a good and friendly group. I said, “Any black friends here?" He said, "We don't have but 400 of them.” |