Civil Rights Commission closes Two Main Offices

[MontageOfFreedom]

Are they the people in charge of funding for the Electoral Reform Commission?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050429/ap_on_go_ot/civil_rights
"The office also will offer early retirement packages and require remaining staff to take short furloughs, said Kenneth L. Marcus, the commission's staff director.

"It's an extraordinarily difficult process," Marcus said. "We will continue providing civil rights services without pause."

The 48-year-old commission is charged with making recommendations to the government on issues concerning equal opportunity for racial and ethnic communities, people with disabilities and other minority groups. Once called the "conscience of the nation," it laid the groundwork for the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

But the commission's $9 million budget has not changed in 10 years, and it expects to face a $265,000 budget deficit this fiscal year. There are currently 64 staff members, down from 93 in 1996.

Regional offices in Denver and Kansas City, Kan., will be closed by Oct. 31, Marcus said. The state-level civil rights work that is now coordinated in those offices will be folded into the remaining regional offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., he said."

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"The civil rights agency has faced mounting troubles for nearly a decade. In 1997, the Government Accountability Office called it "an agency in disarray," criticizing its poor financial tracking and spotty project management and strategic planning.

In the past year, some officials with the commission have been forced out and more conservative replacements have been brought in.

Amid the turmoil, the fact-finding work at the commission's core has slowed dramatically. Last July, a report was issued on possible bias against Korean residents in Baltimore — six years after the local commission held a hearing on those issues."

Astounding that they are actually considering closing it, when the election system is in this state of crisis. I even wonder if the federal govt. is pulling its funding...

[Freedom_from_Chains]

1. In the comming theocracy we won't need civil rights offices

Just offices for the committe of religious compliance.

[MontageOfFreedom]

3. It reminds me of that op-ed article that exposed Ohio....

The democratic and verified operatives in nearly every precinct, was some crazed fundamentalist and his wife. Actual eye witness reports of them doing the fraud firsthand was even observed. The reason for the shortages was because of these nutjobs, and now it seems the reason for the lack of offices.

[Melissa G]

2. Sucks Raw Eggs! n/t