Letter to Senator Dole from U.S. Representatives in favor of Civil Rights Act
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house_048_003_001_tr.txt - Extent (Dublin Core)
- 2 Pages
- File Name (Dublin Core)
- house_048_003_001
- Title (Dublin Core)
- Letter to Senator Dole from U.S. Representatives in favor of Civil Rights Act
- Date (Dublin Core)
- 1968-04-05
- Date Created (Dublin Core)
- 1968-04-05
- Congress (Dublin Core)
- 90th (1967-1969)
- Topics (Dublin Core)
- See all items with this valueDiscrimination--Law and legislation--United States
- Policy Area (Curation)
- Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues
- Creator (Dublin Core)
- McCulloch, William M. (William Moore), 1901-1980
- Frelinghuysen, Peter H. B.
- Kleppe, Thomas S., 1919-2007
- Record Type (Dublin Core)
- correspondence
- Names (Dublin Core)
- See all items with this valueDole, Robert J., 1923-2021
- See all items with this valueUnited States. Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968
- See all items with this valueUnited States. Fair Housing Act
- Rights (Dublin Core)
- http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/
- Language (Dublin Core)
- eng
- Collection Finding Aid (Dublin Core)
- https://dolearchivecollections.ku.edu/index.php?p=collections/findingaid&id=5&q=
- Physical Location (Dublin Core)
- Collection 001, Box 48, Folder 3
- Institution (Dublin Core)
- Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS
- Archival Collection (Dublin Core)
- Robert J. Dole House of Representatives Papers, 1960-1969
- Full Text (Extract Text)
-
C.R.
Congress of the United States House of Representatives Washington, D.C. 20515
April 5, 1968
RECEIVED APR 8 1968
BOB DOLE
Dear Colleague:
We believe that the House should adopt the Senate-passed civil rights bill of 1968. On two previous occasions -- in 1960 and in 1964 -- the House, without requesting a Conference, adopted significantly altered versions of House-approved civil rights bills.
We are convinced that this measure -- approved in the Senate by 29 Republicans and 42 Democrats -- is sound and just legislation. While we recognize that, like most complex bills, this bill is not perfect in every detail, it does seek to protect certain fundamental individual rights and assure equality of opportunity for all of our citizens. It is an affront to human dignity for any American to find that even though his bank balance is ample, his credit rating is good, and the character of his family is above reproach, he still cannot buy or rent better housing because his skin is not white.
Some questions have been raised regarding the various new sections incorporated in the Senate bill.
Title I, the anti-riot section, embraces areas covered in H.R. 421 and H.R. 2516 (protection of civil rights workers). Both bills passed the House in 1967. Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee expressed the view in Committee Reports on both that the two bills actually bear on the same problem, and, therefore, should be combined. The Senate has accepted this approach.
Titles II through VII, deal with the rights of American Indians. Our colleague, Ben Reifel of South Dakota, the only American Indian now serving in Congress, enthusiastically supports this Indian Bill of Rights as being long overdue.
Title X, regulates the use of firearms in connection with civil disorders. Senator Roman Hruska of Nebraska is the author of firearms legislation which has the endorsement of sportsmen's groups throughout the country. He voted for this civil rights bill in the Senate.
The key vote will be on a procedural question that will determine whether or not the House accepts the Senate bill without a Conference.
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If the bill goes to Conference, the best that can be said is that it faces an uncertain future. Once this bill goes to Conference, it must make its tortuous way through the Senate again (underlined) even though no changes in the Senate bill are made by the conferees.(end underline) There is grave danger that delay could defeat the bill.
There is no Republican policy position on this bill. It should be noted that Bill McCulloch, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, intends to vote against sending the Senate bill to Conference. We know that a substantial number of Republicans intend to support that position. At this time, it appears that approximately 200 House members are prepared to vote for the Senate bill. The votes of additional Republicans and Democrats are obviously needed to pass this legislation.
Of course we share the reservations of some of our colleagues with respect to the draftsmanship of the Senate bill and the parliamentary procedures being followed. But we also share the conviction that it is urgent for our nation that effective open housing legislation be passed this year. This matter of simple justice has been too long denied. Weighing all these considerations in the balance, we conclude that the civil rights bill should not be exposed to further unnecessary hazards.
We ask your help by voting and urging our colleagues to vote for the Senate bill without sending it to Conference.
Sincerely,
(signature) William M. McCulloch
(signature) John N. Erlenborn
(signature) Robert Taft, Jr.
(signature) Albert H. Quie
(signature) William C. Cowger
(signature) Ben Reifel
(signature) Edward G. Biester, Jr.
(signature) Peter H.B. Frelinghuysen
(signature) Clark MacGregor
(signature) Howard W. Robison
(signature) William A. Steiger
(signature) John R. Dellenback
(signature) Paul Findley
(signature) Joseph. M. McDade
(signature) Thomas S. Kleppe
(signature) Alexander Pirnie
(signature) Gilbert Gude
(signature) Paul N. McCloskey
(signature) F. Bradford Morse
(signature) Charles W. Whalen, Jr.
(signature) Charles E. Goodell
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