Report on the Beast

The federal bureaucracy is a huge, slumbering monster which, through apathy, nullifies the hopes for racial justice created by the landmark civil rights legislation of the '60s. That was the gist of a report issued seven months ago by the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. Last week the commission announced the results of a Government-wide progress check. Said the commission chairman, the Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, president of Notre Dame: While much remains to be done, "the dinosaur has finally opened one eye."

Ironically, the commission found itself praising last year's bogeymen. Inertia-encrusted bureaucratic domains such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Civil Aeronautics Board and the Interstate Commerce Commission were singled out for making some progress in civil rights enforcement. Plans for formal proceedings that may result in a rule against discrimination in employment by the transportation industry are currently being worked on at the CAB and the ICC; the SEC has agreed to require disclosure of pending civil rights actions against a company seeking registration with that agency.

By contrast, the Department of Housing and Urban Development--which once pursued a more activist civil rights role than it has under the Nixon Administration--came under attack. HUD made few positive responses to the commission's recommendations of last fall. The commission had sought clarification of HUD policy toward low-income housing, economic and racial integration of cities and suburbs, and an increase in staff and data-collection procedures. But charts prepared from questionnaires filled out by HUD officials repeatedly carried the notation: "Under review by HUD, the Department of Justice and the White House."

The Other Eye. The problem at HUD reflects the Nixon Administration's indecision on housing policy, which has provided some embarrassing moments for Secretary George Romney. He has seen his position supporting low-income housing in the suburbs publicly undermined by the President.

The commissioners summed up the shift: "It may mark the beginning of the Federal Government's withdrawal from active participation in the effort to eliminate residential segregation." Although the Civil Rights Commission gave guarded approval to some Administration actions in recent months, the criticism of HUD made it clear that the dinosaur ought to open the other eye as well.

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