Nation: Bus Busting

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Congress backtracks

For President-elect Ronald Reagan, one of the not-so-incidental pleasures of his visit to Washington last week was the chance to applaud a legislative harbinger of his upcoming Administration. While Reagan was in town, the Senate passed a measure that would prohibit the Justice Department from seeking court-ordered busing in school desegregation cases. "I am heart and soul in favor of the things that have been done in the name of civil rights and desegregation," said Reagan. "I happen to believe, however, that busing has been a failure." The measure, proposed as a rider to an appropriations bill for the Departments of State, Justice and Commerce, was a significant action by the lameduck Congress. Supported by such conservative Republicans as South Carolina's Strom Thurmond, who will become Judiciary Committee chairman in January, and Jesse Helms of North Carolina, the bill passed by a vote of 51 to 35. Says Helms: "The vast majority of people of all races are sick and tired of Government meddling in their schools."

The Senate narrowly rejected a similar motion in September, but some of those who opposed it at the time, most notably Senators George McGovern, Frank Church and Warren Magnuson, were absent from last week's session after their election defeats. Several other Senators, including Democrats Alan Cranston and John Glenn, switched their votes to favor the bill. This led to speculation that legislators are becoming reluctant to go on the record in favor of forced busing.

Civil rights leaders are more worried about the vote's symbolism than its practical effects, which may not be extensive. Says N.A.A.C.P. Legal Defense and Education Fund Attorney Steve Ralston: "Our concern is that it's the first in a potentially long series of acts by Congress that will backtrack seriously on the gains made in civil rights." If implemented, the measure would not affect past desegregation orders, and it might not affect the 75 cases now pending. Furthermore, the rider would not stop busing suits; it would simply stop those filed by the Justice Department and hence shift the whole burden of initiating such actions to private groups. Since the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Justice Department has brought 200 busing suits, including some in large cities such as Houston and Kansas City, Kans. But the majority of explosive and significant cases—in Boston, Detroit, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Louisville —have been the result of private actions.

In recent years the Justice Department actually has exerted a moderating influence, seeking negotiated solutions to school segregation problems and insisting that forced busing be used only as a last resort. Indeed, the impact of the rider on department policy during the next four years would probably be rather academic, since a Reagan-appointed Attorney General could hardly be expected to press busing suits very vigorously, if at all.