CONYERS Statement At Hearing With DOJ IG & GAO Directors Of Justice & Homeland Issues

Washington, D.C. – House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) provided the following remarks at a hearing entitled, “Examining Systemic Management and Fiscal Challenges Within the Department of Justice” featuring Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz and U.S. Government Accountability Office of Homeland Security and Justice Director Diana Maurer:

Dean of the U.S. House
of Representatives
John Conyers, Jr.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

And thank you to our distinguished guests for joining us today.

Mr. Chairman, I understand that you have framed this hearing around management and fiscal challenges at the Department of Justice.

Like you—and like our witnesses from the Government Accountability Office and the Office of the Inspector General—I believe that meaningful oversight of the Department of Justice requires us all to be good stewards of taxpayer funds.

There are many areas we can pursue, including the disproportionate amount of the Department’s budget that is consumed by prison spending.  In addition, the Inspector General has issued a report specifying serious problems with privately operated prisons, which do not maintain the same level of safety and security as Bureau of Prisons facilities and which do not provide an adequate level of rehabilitative services.  These are troubling issues that many of my colleagues, including Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, and I have focused on over the years. 

However, given the roles our witnesses play in more pressing developments at the Department of Justice, I would also like to focus my time today on a few, more discrete issues.

First, on the topic of fiscal management, I wonder if our witnesses can speak to the budget priorities of the Trump Administration.

This Committee has oversight of the United States Secret Service—an agency that provides protection to the President every time he travels to New York or Florida for the weekend, and to his family as they travel the world to advance the interests of the Trump Organization.

It seems to me that the GAO is the right organization to evaluate the cost of that protection to the taxpayer, and to place that cost in the context of a proposed budget that makes deep cuts to a number of important programs.

Second, on February 17, 2017, Mr. Jeffries and I wrote a letter—signed by many of my colleagues—to you, Mr. Inspector General.

In that letter, we asked your office to investigate two matters: (1) whether the Trump Administration has engaged any improper effort to intimidate or threaten whistleblowers, and (2) whether Attorney General Sessions has a conflict of interest that requires his recusal from any matter involving contact between Russian officials and the Trump campaign.

Let me be clear: I do not condone the leaks of classified information to the press. 

But the President has gone out of his way to intimidate virtually any individual hoping to expose misconduct in the Trump Administration—including but not limited to random searches of personal cell phones, and general harassment via Twitter.

I know that the Inspector General agrees that whistleblowers are key to identifying waste, fraud, and abuse, and I hope his office is looking into the matter.

Finally, on March 16, 2017, I again wrote to the Inspector General, this time asking about improper contacts between the White House and the Department of Justice.

We know that the White House Chief of Staff has called the Director and Deputy Director of the FBI, asking them to comment publicly to “knock down” reporting he did not like.

We also know that President Trump placed a phone call to Preet Bharara, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, the day before the Administration summarily fired all 46 sitting U.S. Attorneys.

           

And, we know that these calls are in direct violation of standing guidance at the Department of Justice, prohibiting contact between its investigators and the White House except in extraordinary circumstances.

To their credit, none of these officials complied with pressure from the White House.  Knowing the Department’s rules about such contacts, Mr. Bharara did not even take the call.

Nevertheless, I fear that the White House has ignored this important policy—and that further investigation by the Inspector General is warranted.

I look forward to our discussion on these and other matters today, I thank the Chairman, and I yield back.

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

CONYERS, Scott Statement on New Civil Rights Data from Department of Education

WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) unveiled new data from the 2013-2014 school year showing gaps that remain in educational equity and opportunity for students. Education and the Workforce Committee Ranking Member Rep. Bobby Scott (VA-03) and Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (MI-13) released the following statement on the release of the new data by OCR:

Dean of the U.S. House
of Representatives
John Conyers, Jr.

“The report released today from the Department of Education is a disturbing reminder of what too many families already know, and what was confirmed in the report from the General Accountability Office (GAO) we unveiled last month.  Our nation’s increasingly diverse student population is too often hyper-segregated in K-12 public schools and, sadly, educational opportunity is not available to all students of color on equal terms. This new data, and GAO’s study, are a call to action.

“That is why we introduced H.R.5260, the Equity and Inclusion Enforcement Act. The bill would amend Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to allow individuals to bring suits against school districts that implement practices and policies that have disparate impact based on race, color or nationality. We must honor our obligation to fulfil the promise of Brown v. Board of Education and seize the opportunity presented by the Every Student Succeeds Act to take meaningful and deliberate action – supported by the Federal government – to level the playing field in public K-12 schools.”

REPORT:    2013-14 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC)

The Equity and Inclusion Enforcement Act (EIEA): Restoring Private Right of Action to Disparate Impact Clai... by Beverly Tran

Fact Sheet - GAO School Segregation Report

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

New report is 'huge warning sign' that desegregation has failed in US schools

Report illuminates extent to which US schools are becoming more segregated, with more than 60% of schools with high levels of poor students racially divided

When Terrance Green was a student at Detroit public schools starting in the 1980s, he celebrated his experience in the overwhelmingly black district.

“The teachers were outstanding … there was a very strong ethos around racial identity, around civil rights, around celebrating who we were,” he said.

It wasn’t lost on Green, however, that just north of 8 Mile Road – the demarcation line of Detroit and its suburbs – students had access to a significantly higher amount of resources.

“I do remember … 8 Mile being like the psychological barrier, even in the early 80s it was,” said Green, 33. “I knew there were these suburbs [that] had more amenities, but I don’t think I could articulate that as an elementary school child.”

A fourth-generation Detroiter, Green’s entry into the city’s public school system was only several years removed from a seminal 1974 US supreme court ruling on school desegregation, Milliken v Bradley, which ended a plan to integrate mostly white suburban schools into Detroit’s public school system. The city’s population continued to swiftly decline in the years that followed, eroding the school system’s resources in tandem until the state declared a financial emergency.

Green, a professor of educational policy and planning at the University of Texas at Austin, pointed to the Milliken decision as a “death knell” to implementing the supreme court’s 1954 decision in Brown v Board of Education to desegregate school systems.

“How do you have meaningful desegregation when you have white flight occurring at rapid rates, but we can’t involve suburban school districts where this was occurring?” Green said. “It stopped mandatory desegregation efforts metropolitan-wide.”

A report released this week by the Government Accountability Office illuminated the extent to which school systems across the US are, once again, becoming more segregated. The report found that more than 60% of schools with high levels of poor students were racially segregated, which the report defined as being at least 75% black or Latino.

The study reviewed federal data from 2001 to 2014 and found 16% of all US schools were both racially segregated and poor, increasing from about 7,000 schools in 2001 to 15,089 by 2013 to 2014. Observers and advocates for school desegregation said the report should be a “huge warning sign” that needs to be addressed.

“There are many who believe in this country that we are operating on an even playing field,” said Jadine Johnson, staff attorney at Advancement Project.

“I think what this report revealed … is that the legacies of slavery in this country, the legacies of Jim Crow, are alive and active,” she said. “That did not go away with Brown v Board of Education.”

Compared to other schools, the GAO report found, segregated schools offered fewer college prep, science, and math classes to take, and a disproportionate number of students were either held back in ninth grade, suspended, or expelled.

Michigan congressman John Conyers was among several lawmakers who requested the report, which was released on the 62nd anniversary of Brown v Board of Education. Conyers and Virginia congressman Bobby Scott are pushing legislation that would amend Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and restore the rights of parents to file lawsuits against segregated school districts under claims of disparate impacts, which are based on ascertaining the discriminatory effect of a policy rather than ascertaining a discriminatory intent.

"This GAO report confirms what has long been feared and proves that current barriers against educational equality are eerily similar to those fought during the civil rights movement,” Conyers said in a statement. “There simply can be no excuse for allowing educational apartheid in the 21st century.”

Johnson said the loss of parents’ ability to file disparate impact cases was a “huge blow to the civil rights community”. Johnson has assisted in filing several Title VI complaints in recent years with the federal department of education – complaints that could have been filed in federal court under Conyers’ proposal.

“Us having that right could have potentially … slowed down the school closures crisis that’s happening today,” she said.

In Conyers’ home state, the largest public school system – Detroit – is currently embroiled in a struggle for survival amid bloated class sizes, paltry resources, and large-scale protests waged by teachers who have faced the prospect of working without pay. Michigan’s governor, Rick Snyder, is pushing a controversial $715m plan to overhaul the district, which needs a significant influx of cash to move forward with much-needed repairs for dozens of dilapidated facilities.

Only one-third of high school students in Detroit public schools are proficient in reading, according to Snyder’s office.

Green said the Milliken decision is one of the “main culprits” in what has happened to his alma mater.

Despite the supreme court’s 1954 landmark decision that US schools must be desegregated, Detroit’s school system remained effectively segregated, stemming in part from an accelerated white flight. When the NAACP legally challenged the state of Michigan in 1970 to end the district’s segregation, at first, the federal courts agreed something needed to be done: A plan was crafted to bus students in from suburban districts and was upheld by an appellate court.

But the plan was quickly stamped out. In 1974, the US supreme court in a 5-4 ruling shot down the efforts in Detroit, saying desegregation measures had to remain inside district boundaries.

In a column he co-wrote for the Detroit Free Press, Green argued that “we need advocacy and policies for all schools to be equitable, and racially and socioeconomically diverse across metro Detroit so that all children can learn to grow up in a diverse nation.”

Compared to suburban districts, he said, citing the GAO report, segregated schools have less access to courses needed to exceed in college – and, in some cases, a lower level of teacher experience. Indeed, a plan approved by the Michigan house to overhaul Detroit schools would allow uncertified teachers to be hired by the district.

“So I think there’s also a resource argument that has to be made [for integration],” he said.

The GAO recommended that the US department of education “more routinely analyze” civil rights data to identify disparities and said the federal justice department could “systematically track key information on open federal school desegregation cases to which it is a party to better inform its monitoring”.

Eve Hill, US deputy assistant attorney general, wrote in a response letter to the report: “The Department carefully monitors each open desegregation case to which the United States is a party on a case-by-case basis, recognizing that each case is unique.” The justice department is involved in 178 open desegregation cases, stemming from court orders that originated in the 1970s and 1980s.

Green said the GAO report underscores the spirit of the Brown v Board of Education decision.

“It’s not just about putting white bodies and black bodies together,” he said. “It’s about understanding what they said in 54, that racially segregated and separate schools are inherently unequal.”

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

CONYERS, Scott Unveil New GAO Report on Segregation in Public Schools

Washington, D.C. – Committee on the Judiciary Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (MI-13) and  Committee on Education and the Workforce Ranking Member Bobby Scott (VA-03) unveiled the findings of a new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on actions needed to reduce racial and socioeconomic segregation, and address disparities in K-12 public schools. Ranking Members Conyers and Scott, along with retired Congressman and former Ranking Member George Miller, first requested this report in May 2014.

Sixty-two years ago, the Supreme Court struck down lawful school segregation in the Brown v. Board of Education decision, stating that “it is doubtful that any child may reasonable be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education” The decision also affirmed that education was a right that “must be made available to all on equal terms.” GAO gathered data for this report from the Department of Education and confirmed that increasing segregation along the lines of race and poverty continue to be a driver for inequities in education. Despite Brown’s affirmation that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal,” our system of public education remains largely separate and largely unequal.

Dean of the U.S. House
of Representatives
John Conyers, Jr.

“This GAO report confirms what has long been feared and proves that current barriers against educational equality are eerily similar to those fought during the civil rights movement,” said Rep. John Conyers.“There simply can be no excuse for allowing educational apartheid in the 21st century. Congress and the federal government, as well as state and local agencies, must ensure all children receive access to equal education at all publicly funded schools.”

“Sixty-two years later, here we are in 2016 facing an overwhelming failure to fulfil the promise of Brown in realizing equality in educational opportunity for all students,” said Rep. Bobby Scott. “In May of 2014, I, along with Ranking Member Conyers and former Education and the Workforce Committee Ranking Member George Miller, requested that the GAO examine racial and socioeconomic isolation in K-12 public schools, and the resulting impact on educational equity. The report resulting from this inquiry confirms a growing and persistent body of research. The GAO report confirms that our nation’s schools are, in fact, largely segregated by race and class. What’s more troubling, is that segregation in public K12 schools isn’t getting better; it's getting worse, and getting worse quickly, with more than 20 million students of color now attending racially and socioeconomically isolated public schools. This report is a national call to action, and I intend to ensure Congress is part of the solution.”

“Equal educational opportunity is too critical to our nation’s future to allow persistent disparities adversely affecting minority groups to continue,” stated Thomas A. Saenz, President and General Counsel of MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund).  “Unjustified and significant educational disparities must be challengeable by private individuals; the Department of Education simply cannot provide the consistent and broad enforcement necessary for such a pivotal concern.”

Nearly a half-century of research shows that segregation negatively impacts student outcomes and exacerbates unequal opportunity experienced later in life. GAO data from the Department of Education confirmed that race and poverty continue to be driver for inequities in education and that housing segregation patterns contribute to school segregation.

“This report shines a light on worsening educational inequities that cannot be divorced from our nation's legacy of racial discrimination that has perpetuated racial and socioeconomic isolation,” said NAACP President and Director Counsel Sherrilyn Ifill. “It is our imperative on the 62^nd anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown v. Board of Education to ask, ‘How will we act to address current disparities like resource inequities and discriminatory discipline practices?’ We must ensure that interventions address the intersectional nature of racial discrimination in areas like housing and economics that impact educational opportunities and outcomes.”

“The findings of GAO confirm what we know to be true: that the promise of Brown remains a promise that has gone largely unfulfilled,” said National Urban League President and CEO Marc H. Morial. “In too many communities, students of color are now more segregated with less access to equitable educational opportunities than in decades prior. Collectively, we can and must do better. This is why the National Urban League and our network of local leaders remains dedicated to partnering with state and school district leaders to seize on the opportunity presented by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA); to turn the ship and reverse the trend of racial and socioeconomic isolation in public K-12 education. I look forward to continued collaboration with Congress to ensure that government at all levels is acting to right this egregious wrong and bring us closer to fulfilling Brown’s promise.”

Reps. Conyers and Scott introduced the Equity and Inclusion Enforcement Act, legislation to empower parents and communities to address – through robust enforcement – racial inequities in public education.

The Equity and Inclusion Enforcement Act (EIEA): Restoring Private Right of Action to Disparate Impact Clai... by Beverly Tran

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

FEDERAL AUDITORS RELEASE REPORT ON MUNICIPALITIES IN FISCAL CRISIS IN RESPONSE TO CONYERS AND PETERS REQUEST

Report Finds Significant Loss Of Federal Grant Funding Due To Reduced Personnel Levels

DETROIT –On March 20, 2015, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report in response to a request from Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (MI-13) and Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) to analyze the impact of financial distress on the ability of municipalities, such as Detroit, to obtain and manage federal grant programs.  The study focused multiple cities undergoing bankruptcy, including Detroit and Flint in Michigan, as well as Camden, NJ and Stockton, CA.  The GAO found that budget cuts forced reductions in personnel which led to loss of skilled and experienced staff in Detroit.  In turn, this significantly undermined the City’s ability to effectively obtain and manage federal grants and “caused some [federal] grant funds to remain unspent.”  

Federal grant programs are used by cities across the United States to fund vital services, such as public health and safety, police and firefighting services, education, health care, job training and environmental protection.  These programs, however, are typically subject to extensive accountability requirements that must be satisfied prior to funding distribution to municipalities. 

Among its other findings, the GAO cited a “decrease in state revenue” as one of the “key” sources of Detroit’s fiscal crisis.  As Rep. Conyers previously observed, the failure of the State of Michigan to honor its revenue sharing commitment with municipalities caused cities such as Detroit and Flint to lose millions of dollars in state funding that they could have used to retain critical personnel necessary to manage federal funding programs for the benefit of our citizens. 

Dean of the U.S. House
of Representaties
John Conyers, Jr.

The GAO also found that the White House Working Group on Detroit, an interagency group comprised of staff from multiple federal agencies, provided important assistance to Detroit.  The Working Group helped to facilitate better coordination between federal agencies and Detroit officials to enable the city to address its fiscal issues by meeting with senior city leaders to learn their priorities and then connecting these officials with available resources and experts.  For example, the Working Group helped to redirect $100 million in federal grant funds to address urban blight in the City of Detroit.

“I applaud the invaluable assistance that the White House Working Group on Detroit provided to the City.  And, it is my hope, that the Administration will document good practices derived from these efforts so other municipalities that encounter fiscal distress in the future will benefit from lessons learned, as recommended by the Government Accountability Office in the report it issued today,” said Rep. Conyers.

GAO Audit of MUNICIPALITIES IN FISCAL CRISIS Federal Agencies Monitored Grants and Assisted Grantees, but M...

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Reps. Conyers and Peters Request GAO Investigation of Michigan Emergency Managers

(WASHINGTON) – Today, Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) and Congressman C. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) requesting an investigation into emergency managers in Michigan. Reps. Conyers and Peters issued this statement following their transmission of the letter to the GAO:

U.S. Representative
John Conyers, Jr.

John Conyers, Jr.: “It is difficult to identify a single instance where an emergency manager has succeeded in turning around the financial fortunes of a city or jurisdiction. The history of the emergency manager Law in Michigan is replete with fiscal mismanagement and conflicts of interest.  In the absence of any sort of checks or balances at the state level, it is vital that the GAO examine the law and its impact, particularly the impact on federal funding.”

U.S. Representative
Gary Peters

Gary C. Peters: “By focusing only on short-term budgetary patches, emergency managers have failed to address the long-term systemic issues confronting older urban areas. The consistent record of poor results we’ve seen from emergency managers is why I’m joining with Congressman John Conyers in calling for a GAO review.”

Letter to GAO From U.S. Representatives John Conyers, Jr, and Gary Peters Requesting a Study of Michigan Em...

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©