Statement on Proposed
Legislation to Amend the Fair Housing Act
The
Senate is scheduled to consider shortly legislation we have long sought to
strengthen the Fair Housing Act. That act prohibits discrimination in housing
based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. I am extremely pleased
at the swift congressional response to the call in my legislative message at
the beginning of this session of Congress for the enactment of new civil rights
legislation to strengthen the Fair Housing Act. Among other things, the
legislation extends the protection of the act to prohibit housing
discrimination against those with handicaps, one of my key legislative goals.
Today
I received a welcome report from Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Sam
Pierce and Attorney General Ed Meese that a package
of amendments with broad support has been fashioned to further improve the bill
that the House of Representatives passed in June. The package ensures appropriate
roles for Federal, State and local government in protecting the housing rights
of persons with handicaps, improves arrangements for the conduct of lawsuits by
the Federal Government to enforce the act, and protects the rights of older
Americans.
I
urge the Senate and then the House to pass the bill swiftly, to advance the day
when I will receive from the Congress the landmark civil rights bill for which
we have worked so long and hard.