On the Scene: The Rise and Fall of Civil Rights

Washington, D.C. IT WAS your typical Beltway week, and on the House floor members were considering two measures dealing with the Resolution Trust Corporation, the agency set up to sell off the assets of the failed savings and loans. The Republican legislation was offered by Chalmers Wylie (Ohio); the Democratic proposal bore the name of Banking Committee Chairman Henry Gonzalez (Tex.). At stake was $30 billion in funding, but the real issue soon became quotas: the Gonzalez measure included language setting an “overall goal of not less than 25 per cent of all contracting activities to be entered into with minority individuals or women.” This was in response to freshman Representative Maxine Waters (D., Calif.), whose insistence in committee on provisions for women ultimately ballooned into the huge set-aside provision.

When it got to the floor, the Republicans pounced. The Democratic defenders denied the charges; Esteban Torres (Calif.) insisted the figure was “a goal, not a quota,” but Congressman Wylie brought him up short. Several times he read the provision aloud in its entirety, focusing on the word “shall.” “The corporation ‘shall,’ ” he said. “That is mandatory language, ‘shall.’ I am a lawyer. It is not discretionary. ‘May’ is discretionary.”

Washington, D.C. IT WAS your typical Beltway week, and on the House floor members were considering two measures dealing with the Resolution Trust Corporation, the agency set up to sell off the assets of the failed savings and loans. The Republican legislation was offered by Chalmers Wylie (Ohio); the Democratic proposal bore the name of Banking Committee Chairman Henry Gonzalez (Tex.). At stake was $30 billion in funding, but the real issue soon became quotas: the Gonzalez measure included language setting an “overall goal of not less than 25 per cent of all contracting activities to be entered into with minority individuals or women.” This was in response to freshman Representative Maxine Waters (D., Calif.), whose insistence in committee on provisions for women ultimately ballooned into the huge set-aside provision.

When it got to the floor, the Republicans pounced. The Democratic defenders denied the charges; Esteban Torres (Calif.) insisted the figure was “a goal, not a quota,” but Congressman Wylie brought him up short. Several times he read the provision aloud in its entirety, focusing on the word “shall.” “The corporation ‘shall,’ ” he said. “That is mandatory language, ‘shall.’ I am a lawyer. It is not discretionary. ‘May’ is discretionary.”