subcommittee continues its oversight of the civil rights division of the department of justice with the authority to enforce civil rights laws the division is the guardian of our fundamental values freedom of religion the right to be treated fairly the right to cast a vote a free and fair election the right to a job the right to a home the right to an education without discrimination and with the act was a hate crimes prevention act recently the right to live one's life free from the threat of violence hate crimes as our subcommittee documented the division has been deeply troubled over the past years career civil rights attorneys were routinely overruled by political appointees hiring was illegally politicized enforcement wasn't grossly neglected and morale was as bad as any time since the divisions establishment the loss of dedicated career staff was alarming we now have a new assistant attorney general tom perez who will be our first witness he's a career civil rights lawyer and he has a tremendous job ahead of him in addition to the historically challenging work of the civil rights division you must rebuild a decimated the marlise office and he must do so as such a monumental task as the descending redistricting on the horizon we would have liked to have had him here sooner but some of our colleagues in the other body apparently didn't have the same sense of urgency in getting him on the job i hope to hear from mr peres how he plans to meet these challenges we will also hear from the government accountability office which is produced two extensive reports on the civil rights division at the request of chairman conyers mr white and myself i think the analysis and recommendations will help move the decision forward as it meets the challenges of the next few years i want to welcome all our witnesses and i look forward to their testimony i will now recognize the distinguished ranking member of the subcommittee mr sensenbrenner for five minutes thank you very much mr chairman and i guess we on this side of the aisle have a little different view of what happened in the last eight years and in the second our elected leaders the legitimacy of our election process and the civil division of the civil rights division of the justice department plays a role in safeguarding that process during the last election one organization became notorious for threatening the integrity of our elections through a massive campaign of improper election activity that organization called acorn is mired in criminal investigations in at least twelve which now include new york louisiana pennsylvania florida nevada while the national reach of harm corruption firmly established it is time for this committee to conduct investigation let me read a few sections of acorn's extensive rap  name off of federal money and seattle local prosecutors indicted seven acorn workers following a scheme the washington called the worst case of voter registration fraud in the state's history of the two thousand name submitted by over ninety seven percent were fake in missouri officials found that over a thousand voter addresses submitted by card didn't exist koren employees pled guilty to federal election fraud there in ohio a report that concluded that eight people were sworn in as deputy registrars who were convicted felons under the supervision of the state department of corrections acorn was their sponsoring organization the sixty seven page wisconsin report generally describes what it calls any illegal organized attempt to influence the outcome of the two thousand and four election in the state of wisconsin the report found that between forty six hundred fifty three hundred more votes were counted in milwaukee what could happen today sure enough doing the two thousand and eight election acorn's executive director have to admit that of the one point three million new voters acorn claimed to have registered only a third of those or four hundred fifty thousand were much as five million it's tragic enough that when voluntary donations are used illegally but acorn also receives millions of taxpayer dollars then it is eligible to receive millions more if the prohibition on its funding congress recently enacted and is current sunset in mid december the justice department is final only a couple thousand dollars current or its affiliates as most of its funding comes from prevention attacks yes i said crime prevention and astonishingly in the midst of all of this a lawyer for president obama's election campaign wrote a letter to the justice department last october demanding that it investigate not a foreign but the mccain campaign for daring to mention what the lawyer referred to as manufactured allegations targeting the organization that lawyer robert  white house counsel mr bauer may be interested in the internal june two thousand and eight memorandum prepared by his own lawyer did recently became public the memo found systematic problems with harm and it and describes operating like a family business more than an accountable organization the same memo also describes a potentially improper use of charitable dollars for political purposes illicit money generosity but more will come at a later date ok well i take it from you lord knows what steve king is going to say  that this is the most important issue for the civil rights division and the voter rights section to consider is that fair mr and enforcing it against those who break it it doesn't make any difference as long as people who are suspected of breaking the law are brought to justice so that's a long way of saying yes i take yes no i didn't say yes i said what i said oh you didn't say ok you didn't say no and you didn't say yes but you said what you said well that's that's not as helpful as i thought it would be no could i ask my friend mr sensenbrenner were you at the hearing on tuesday at one o'clock that was sponsored by republican members of this committee that talked about acorn have to gentleman will yield i was not because i had a conflicting engagement i see well look you have lots of important considerations and this one is so important that discussing the responsibilities of the civil rights division containing voter rights enforcement for the first time in a new administration and well well a gentleman yield to me of course the gentleman from michigan at that hearing on tuesday no sir i was well the gentleman further yield to me didn't the gentleman at the hearing of this subcommittee in february suggest that we have an investigation of acorn  untainted by partisanship under my stewardship the department of justice will serve justice not the meeting interested in any political party quote taking over at the helm of the justice department there have been troubling decisions that can only be explained by just partisanship and nowhere have they been more apparent than in the civil rights division one of the most troubling of the department's decision in may to dismiss charges of voter intimidation arising out of the two thousand a presidential election on election day two thousand and two members of the new black panther party brandished a baton in a threatening manner and made verbal threats to those who wanted to vote at a philadelphia polling location according to the department complaint the individuals quote made statements containing racial threats and racial insults at both black and white individuals and made menacing and intimidating gestures statements and movements directed at individuals who were voters and quote one individual carried credentials as a member of the local democratic committee in january this year all rights division filed a complaint against the new black panther party in three of its members for violating the voting rights act which prohibits any attempt to intimidate threaten or any voter and those are the new black panther party nor its members responded to the lawsuit the department affectively won the case when the judge directed the civil rights division to pile final motions but in may that apartment suddenly and inexplicably dismissed all but one of the charges no facts no new evidence was uncovered well the justice explanation as to why the department dismissed the case we were met with silence for five months we have sought answers from the department and still no response from the self proclaimed quote most transparent administration in history continued challenge by the justice department is an implied admission of guilt that the case was dropped for purely political reasons that apartment the american people the truth not another round of empty excuses of equal concern is that apartments  apparent inaction with regard to the numerous examples of improper and possibly legal conduct committed by employees of acorn on tuesday republican members of the judiciary and oversight and government reform committee held a joint forum to examine the numerous allegations of wrongdoing allegedly committed by acorn employees especially involving voter fraud which falls within the civil rights division portfolio we heard whistleblower testimony from former acorn employer  and state law enforcement elections officials who pleaded for federal law enforcement to initiate a nationwide investigation into a corner as one of the witnesses a former justice department attorney himself stated quote the government has initiated major investigations of businesses and government contractors on much less evidence of possible doing and quote i would like to insert their statements into the record for this hearing mr chairman that objections with regard to the g a o report that will be discussed during the second panel it's important to remember that we are here today to conduct oversight on the current civil rights division playing a bush blame game is not effective oversight of the obama administration we can certainly learn things from the past but this hearing is about determining whether the obama administration is going to effectively fairly and without prejudice enforce civil rights laws in the future thank you mr chairman discussion up i think there's a point of clarification that needs to be made one the anchor was made of mr conyers did he show interest or speak about the hearings on acorn in february i think mr conyers answer was we have this discussion about hearings and it appears to me that acorn has corrupted the election process in the united states very constitution itself and it very much is the business of this committee and it's the business of the civil rights commission as well and one of the things that i hope that we can resolve as whether there is any determination resolve on the part of chairman conyers chairman adler to look up our election process in the history of the united states of america will we follow through with our constitutional duty i don't believe it to have anymore private conversations about this over this congress to move more than one committee but especially the committee and specifically the constitutional subcommittee so that's my position and view on  office because the voters took care of that and that's a matter of history as well and in reclaiming my time the continuing resolution that shut off funding acorn expires december eighteenth in just a couple of weeks and so at resolution and the bill of attainder the president that would be president that's on point on this particular subject and ideal back i thank the gentleman now maybe get back to the subject of the hearing which is a civil rights division not acorn in the interest proceeding at two our witnesses and mindful of our busy schedules i asked that other members submit their statements for the record without objection all members will have five legislative day submit opening statements reclusion the record without objection the chair will be authorized to declare recess of the hearing which we will do only in case there are votes or something unforeseen when that's going to our first panel as we ask questions of our witnesses the chair will recognize members of the order this seniority the subcommittee alternating between majority minority provided that the members present his or her turn arrives members who are not present when they begin will be recognized after the other members of had the opportunity to ask their questions the chair reserves the right to accommodate a members on the board to be late or only able to be with us for a short  secretary of maryland's department of labor licensing and regulation in two thousand and two until two thousand and six he was a member of the montgomery county county council he was the first latino ever elected to the council and serve as council president in two thousand five he spent twelve years in federal public service most of them as a career attorney with the civil rights division of the justice department as a federal prosecutor for the division he prosecuted and supervised the prosecution of some of the department's most high profile civil rights cases including a hate crimes case in texas involving a group of white supremacists who went on a deadly racially motivated crime spree mr perez later served as deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights under terry general janet reno he also serve as special counsel to the late senator edward kennedy and was senator kennedy's principal adviser on civil rights criminal justice and constitutional issues for the final two years of the clinton administration mr peres served as the director of the office for civil rights at the united states department of health and human services mr perez was a law professor for six years at the university of maryland school of law and was a part time professor at the george washington school of public you know he receives a bachelor's degree from brown university masters of public policy from the john f kennedy school of government and a jury's doctorate from harvard law school in one nine hundred eighty seven i am pleased to welcome you sir you've written statement its entirety of the a part of the record i would summarize your testimony in five minutes or less to help you stay within that time there is a timing light at your table within one minute when one minute remains the light will switch from green to yellow and then red when the five minutes are up i will advise as witnesses as i will others that i am a little loose with the timing but not to us before we begin it is customary for the committee to swear in its witnesses if you would please stand and raise your right hand to take the oath do you swear or affirm under penalty of perjury that the testimony about to give is true and correct to the best of your knowledge information and belief i do let the record reflect the witness and answer in the affirmative may be seated i thank you and you recognize for five minutes thank you mr chairman i appreciate your leadership on this and so many other issues and i want to knowledge chairman conyers longstanding leadership on a wide range of issues it's great to be back before your committee today mr chairman recchi member smith thank you for your courtesy throughout and i look forward to working with all of you on a wide range of issues it really is a great privilege to be back home in the department of justice civil rights division where i learned how to be a lawyer and i look forward to an active and open dialogue with this committee on a wide range of issues my goals today are to respond to the g a o report and offer my perspective on the challenges and opportunities confronting the civil rights division i want to thank you again for your leadership in commissioning these two g a o reports and let me state right at the outset we accept them we intend to implement their recommendations and we've already begun to do so plain and simple and we will be moving forward in this regard this is the first time i've had the privilege of appearing before this committee so i wanted to take a moment simply to tell you a little bit about my past work in the civil rights division i've been on the job for less than two months as you correctly point out but i'm no stranger to the department into the division of my first job was a summer clerk under four and i stayed in the department until ninety nine when i was deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights and i moved over to the department of health and human services and i'm equally proud of my service under both republican and democratic administrations my service as both a career and a nine career person in the civil rights division i know firsthand the commitment dedication of the career staff and i have great respect for the work that they do more than fifty years after its creation the divisions mission and scope it grown exponentially and the division continues to serve as the conscience of the nation within the federal government our mandate in the civil rights division is clear to enforce all and i underscore all of the civil rights laws  independently and in a nonpartisan fashion regret as documented in the two g a o reports we will discuss today and an earlier report of the inspector general that was dated january two thousand and nine there have been times when the division has failed to fully live up to this mission upon becoming assistant attorney general my goal has been very straightforward find out what's working and continue it and find out what's broken and fix it that is my gut that is my job plain and o report has been very instructive in this regard as was the i g report and when i entered the division i observed that there were a number of initiatives that have been put in place in the bush administration that were very productive and i intend to continue them  human trafficking an issue to combat racial religious discrimination and initiatives to enforce the language minority provisions of the voting rights act and i want to compare i want to commend congressman sensenbrenner and so many others on this committee for his local lawful tools in our arsenal the g a o report and the data clearly document civil rights areas where enforcement waned or was virtually nonexistent for instance during the years covered in the report the division pursued very few pattern of practice cases in the employment context despite considerable evidence of abusive discriminatory behavior by lenders and servicers that contributed to the foreclosure crisis the division did not make any use in the in the bush administration of critical tools in its law enforcement arsenal the equal credit opportunity at the fair housing act to hold lenders accountable in the clinton administration the appellate section six hundred forty three brief in courts of appeals in the bush administration four hundred twenty four in the clinton administration the disability rights action brought to her hundred twenty eight lawsuit compared with one hundred twenty six in the bush administration in the clinton administration the house inspection brought six hundred seventy six cases compared with three hundred  twenty four in the bush administration from two thousand and five till two thousand and seven a total of sixteen years there are cases these are cases where we protect our servicemembers who serve our nation overseas and come home and find that they don't have their job back sixteen cases were brought from two thousand and five to two thousand and seven and the first eight months of the obama administration eighteen such cases have been filed in the current administration the voting section thirty five section two cases compared with in the bush administration in fiscal year two thousand and six the division prosecuted the lowest number of hate crimes cases in more than a decade ten compared with forty three in one nine hundred ninety five when i was a deputy chief in that section human trafficking is critically important and right but it shouldn't come at the expense of hate crimes prosecutions in addition to these troubling facts a number of changes took place in long standing operating practices that have greatly hampered the divisions of activeness for instance the career staff in most instances was frozen out of the hiring process by the non career staff as a result section chiefs were frequently noted notified the week before that a new person whom they had never interviewed and never seen was going to show up and serve in their office when i served on the hiring committee under both republican and democratic administrations the hiring process was governed by the same principle search for the best qualified candidates plain and simple as the i g report has documented hiring in the past two years under the bush administration which frequently govern by improper ideological considerations communications between sections and between career and non career staff which has been a linchpin to the effective operation of the division for decades wayne where instant the appellate section in the bush administration was prohibited from having case related discussions with other sections how can you get the case work done if you can't communicate with the trial lawyer these sorts of issues and challenges were one of many reasons why in two thousand and three if you took a snapshot of the lawyers who were in the division and then you took a snapshot in two thousand and seven seventy percent of the lawyers who were there in two thousand and three had departed the division by two thousand and seven from the moment the new administration took office the division with the attorney general's full backing to step to emphasize core enfor priorities in each of the four litigating sections that are the subject of the report and throughout the division as a whole with respect as i said earlier to all of the recommendations of i concur with them all and i thank them for their diligent service i also  thank my predecessor loretta king for her work in making sure that we move forward in the interim during the nine months between january and my confirmation in october she did a wonderful job i think it's equally important to thank former attorney mccaffrey who began the process of the politicisation during his tenure as attorney general our task ahead as a task of restoration and transformation our goal was not to create the civil rights division capable of years back but to create a division capable of responding to today's and tomorrow's challenges both the merging and long standing it is a formidable task but it is one that can and will be accomplished we recognize that committed career attorneys and professional staff are the most critical single ingredient to villa in this mission and one of our first priorities has been to revamp the hiring process to ensure that we select the best qualified candidates for the job and if you look on our web site today you will see the new hiring process transparent posted so anyone who wants to apply can see how the process works from soup to and working with the career staff we're implementing a number of other important changes we will continue to invest resources in areas such as religious discrimination human trafficking and section two or three and horsemen which were well done in the prior administration but we can and will do much more in a wide range of areas including lending discrimination a crime and voting rights by better leveraging our current resources making the most of additional resources that are in the president's f y two thousand and ten budget and through more effective management we will enforce all of the laws in the divisions arsenal aggressively and comprehensively we are actively engaged in the enforcement of the new hate crimes bill and i was proud to have testified recently on the senate side on the employment nondiscrimination act and last week just in the disability area alone we filed briefs in three separate cases and urging enforcement of the supreme court's landmark decision in almost ad which stands for the proposition that unnecessary institutionalization of people with disabilities is a form of discrimination under the including a seminal case in new york state that i believe w enable us to really move the ball forward last month we obtained the largest monetary settlement ever by the department and a fair housing act when the owners of numerous los angeles apartment building located in the koreatown section of the city agreed to pay two point seven million dollars to settle allegations that they discriminated against african americans and latinos and families with children i know this will not be easy but i am absolutely confident that we can get the job done and i look forward to implementing the recommendations that forth in the g a o report i look forward to working with all of the members of this committee and i appreciate the time that you've given me this morning and i'm more than willing to answer any questions that you have thank you chairman i thank you and i will begin the questioning by recognizing myself of five minutes i missed the paris i was very concerned about the examples of the g a o found during two thousand and one two thousand and seven of civil rights cases particularly in employment in voting in which career civil rights attorneys wanted to pursue investigations but were forbidden from doing so as we've discussed for example to jail found the career staff of the voting section wanted to pursue a claim that african american voters illegally intimidated by state officials in the course of a vote fraud intimidation but that officials at the division front office where political appointees work refused to even allow quote any further contact with state authorities on this matter in employment the career attorney wanted to go forward with a supplemental investigation a pattern and practice case but all the files said was that the matter was closed with no further information as to why it was closed or anything else as a top political appointee in the division what would you do or instruct your staff to do in those types of cases where career attorneys want to pursue investigations thank you for your question mr chairman in connection with the voting case that you mentioned first of all my first learning of that was when i read the g a o report and  we have taken further action once i learned of it in the g a o report i can't comment further regarding the specifics other than to say that thank you for having the g a o report which brought it to our attention and similarly the other matters that you mentioned it's really important i think part of the restoration part of the agenda of the civil rights events and division involves communication and we have implemented a number of systems mr chairman which ensure that we have active communication with our attorneys we've had to make a number of critical calls in various cases and i have met with career staff and i've gone around the room what is your opinion what is your opinion what is your opinion because i want everyone to penny i don't care if everyone has the same opinion i believe that decision making is best when you have the robust dialogue that existed when i worked for john don and existed when i worked for devo patrick and that is the dialogue that i think leads to good decision making you i assume you would not tolerate a case being closed for political reasons correct and can we get an assurance from you that you will look into the cases specified in the g a o report and report back to us as to what you find yes  actions you end up taking yes thank you as i say the previous hearings i have been very concerned and you mentioned decreasing pattern of practice cases in the division under the last administration as you know these pattern  practice cases are the case that really are the most the most impact in employment housing and other areas because general cases explain what steps you are taking or will take to restore the bipartisan tradition of aggressively pursuing pattern in practice cases including cases based on disparate impact yes again there's two types of discrimination there's two ways to prove discrimination as you correctly pointed out proving intentional discrimination or proving that there was a policy in practice that had a disproportionate adverse impact and those cases the facts demonstrate were few and far between over the last eight years and so in the lending context for instance which is a top priority of the attorney general and a top priority of mine we are using that  tool and every circuit that has looked at the issue of whether disparate impact is a viable theory whether it's housing whether it's voting whether it's employment has that the disparate impact is indeed a viable theory both in the housing context in the employment context in the section two voting context where you can show effects and intentional discrimination we will be using all of the tools in our arsenal as we move forward assuming the facts support moving forward under that theory and thank you now at a series of oversight hearings i mean about how our subcommittee has had a series of oversight hearings on the division in the past and i become very concerned about how or under the last administration the bipartisan tradition of effective civil rights was severely damage a number of areas you've indicated that your goal for the division you've stated several times this morning is restoration and transformation can you explain more specifically what you intend to do to restore that bipartisan tradition well i guess i came to the civil rights division when ed meese was the attorney general i entered as a career higher under dick thornburgh i have profound respect for john donne i served on the hiring committee under republican and democratic administrations and everything i've learned in my professional career was built upon the foundation of serving as a career attorney during that period of time and that tradition of decision making that's governed by a careful review of the facts and the application of the facts to the law that is what we will ensure exists in one hundred percent of the matters that we review in this division thank you and last question is we're coming up on the census the next couple years and i'm very concerned about the census the need to avoid undercounting of a significant amount of redistricting that will result based on the data  says let's i know the commerce department responsibility for the census but your division is responsible for viewing district nine plans both to consider where the plans to section five should be pre cleared and to consider whether redistricting plans have discriminatory effects under section do you explain what you're planning to do or have done in these areas but take me to get ready for the significant work you'll have to do in redistricting the next two years we are meeting regularly with our colleagues in the census bureau i actually have a call later today with the  counsel at the department of commerce mr kerry to continue our discussion on a host of issues we are ramping up staffing wise and we're very grateful that the president's budget includes a healthy increase for the department of justice if the budget is adopted hopefully when the budget is adopted there will be one hundred two new slots and i'm quite confident that substantial portion of those slots will be allocated not only for attorneys but for analysts because when the data comes in we need to have that core competency to review that data and make the requisite judgments about various plans that are under submission and so we have a very robust agenda so that we are going to be prepared for not suggesting that crimes like this should be expected by the military due to the religious motivations of military personnel who would balk at being sent to fight in islam lands he also said that military members or those who are not islam would be targets of such crimes and so i guess my question to you if a crime is motivated by animus toward a group who fail to belong to a certain religious group are you with me yes if a crime is motivated by animus toward a group who fail to belong to a certain religious group as in the case of major hasan's stated rationale in crimes  does that mean that major hassan that his crime was actually a hate crime as well the crimes that occurred in fort hood were unspeakable that was a hate crimes where it was a hate crime i have not been involved in the investigation of that criminal investigation and so i don't i don't have in that situation that i've given you if if let me just put it in a hypothetical if a crime is motivated by animus toward a group who failed to belong to a certain religious group as in the case of mr assad's crime would that then be a crime if someone perpetrated a violent crime based on someone not being in a member of a particular religious group would that be prosecuted a number of cases and you're not go sir ok we've prosecuted a number of cases in the civil rights division under eighteen united states code section two forty five which prohibits force or threats of force against another person on account of a person race color or national origin religion and so if there are racial if there are religiously motivated acts of violence and we can demonstrate that that person acted on account of that religious animus and on account of the person exercising what is called a federally protected right under section two forty five then those are the types of cases that are under section two forty five and there have been a number of cases relating to  the people decide i don't think i have time to ask the second question which related to the black panthers case my understanding that miss loretta king who was acting as a political appointee at the time is the person most likely for being responsible for ordering the dismissal of this case and because of this decision by the department of justice department was taken to task by the u s commission on civil rights for dismissing this case that would have been probably a slam dunk case for the department and in what is arguably the worst and most egregious and most high profile nationally televised violation of voting rights act in broad daylight in which members of the new black panthers wield nightsticks at a voting poll entrance while shouting racial slurs and that's a pretty high profile case the department did not dismiss the case and they failed to answer questions about this dismissal that have come from members of this committee other members of congress and now even the u s commission on civil rights and i understand the department policy may prevent you from speaking to the media about pending investigations but there is an exception for matters of the public interest and further your internal policy shouldn't do the duty that you have to answer to the oversight committees of the people's congress and course there's federal statutes that require all federal agencies to cooperate fully with the civil rights commission and my understanding is that chris coats and christian adams two lawyers at the d o g who d o j who had responsibility for this case have received subpoenas from the u s commission on civil rights and i also understand that the two of them have been instructed not to comply with the subpoenas by the department and that at least one of them has hired a lawyer to assist him and how to handle the conflict the conflicting mandates of complying with federal law by telling the u s commission on civil rights the truth versus complying with the demands of the political appointees obama department of justice so my question is will you cooperate with the u s civil rights commission subpoenas to the department employees regarding the dismissal of the lawsuit against the black panthers new but new black panthers case for voter intimidation in philadelphia by instructing your employees to comply with the commission's subpoenas and will you instruct your employees to tell the truth the u s commission on civil rights will you do that so i thank you for your question and number of things i want to correct loretta king is  career her attorney has been a career attorney for roughly thirty years has never been a political appointee in the civil rights division in correct a case the case was not dismiss the case was reviewed by two attorneys including loretta who have a combined total of sixty years of experience and they made the determination that based on the law of the third circuit that the case against the person who wielded the stick that we should indeed seek the maximum penalty and that maximum penalty was sought and obtained and the case against the other defendant should be dismissed and the case against the national party should also be dismissed so that was a determination that was made and so i needed to correct the record because the case was not indeed dismissed and those two careers attorneys with sixty years of experience made that decision the requests from the civil rights commission to which you refer were received shortly before thanksgiving and the civil division which handles all such requests sent a letter to the civil rights commission shortly after that receipt outlining the very extensive protocols that exist and have been in existence for decades under a policy for handling request of this nature and we are awaiting word from the civil rights commission because that letter as i understand it because it is a civil division is handling that request that letter made a number of requests of the civil rights commission and the ball is in their court to respond to those protocols which again are nonpartizan protocols that have been in place pursuant to a nine hundred fifty one supreme court decision and regulations that were promulgated there to those protocols will govern and we look forward under the leadership of the civil division to getting the answers to some of the questions that the civil division asked of the civil rights commission coin never never like a missed opportunity publicly to join with you in praising him for his row and the extension of the voting rights act we differ to have a little bit into that further because i understand that attorney general holder has set up a kind of a task force or division or something pattern of discrimination against minorities in the expansion of credit because  even financially qualified minority getting disproportionately sub prime loans and it seems to me that that part of it every community but the data is overwhelmingly that it disproportionately communities of color i saw that you had governor o'malley's foreclosure prevention efforts in maryland where african americans and latinos were disproportionately victimized and subjected to discrimination quite frankly and that's why there is a civil rights dimension to this challenge there are two jurisdictional hooks that the civil rights division has the fair housing act and the equal credit opportunity act in the clinton administration these provisions were used to hold accountable lenders who had engaged in the precise types of practices that you describe decatur federal savings and loan in georgia as one example  example and we will and must use those tools again to ensure that both in the origination side and in the modification side there is not discrimination and that's precisely what we will do in the civil rights  w that that civil rights component the discrimination component as being part and parcel of the responsibilities of the task force that the attorney general and the attorney general that way as well and it gets a number of subjects i'd like to take up one of the caught my interest in your response to one of the other members was that in the philadelphia case of the new black panthers voter an emanation which i believe was the most clear cut open and shut case of voter intimidation the history of the united states of america you stated that the case was not but it was reviewed and that the maximum penalty was obtained for one individual what was the charge and what was the and that was the penalty that was obtained in that particular case against that particular person and other words don't do this again and the injunction is in place until two thousand well those are the statutory tools that we have congress  to amend the statutory tool to provide additional penalties we will of course enforce the statutory tools that you provide us but to make this clear for the clearest case of voter intimidation paramilitary similar  paramilitary uniform individuals standing in front of the polling place in philadelphia with what has been described as a billy club and racial racial epithets to people coming in to vote  the only penalty the strongest penalty that you have available is injunctive relief that is the statute that that's what the statute provides and that was the penalty that was sought and obtained your against an individual charges that might have applied that were outside the voting rights sorry did you review if there were any other charges that might have applied outside of voter intimidation well again i wasn't here at the time it's my understanding that a criminal review was conducted and the judgment was made to decline prosecution of that authorities also showed up at that case mr perez army would you be willing to go back and take another look at that there are multiple reviews going on by the office of professional responsibility and i look forward to the  you're familiar with the dream act the dream act that provides for in state tuition discounts for students who are unlawfully present in the united states and i'm looking at a quote from you that says we have a legal obligation to make the same commitment to hundreds of immigrant high school students have who have made maryland their home you don't say illegal immigrant high school students i presume that's what you mean by that and if so what would be the legal obligation to provide  california new york and other places and when i was serving in state government and local government i think that the context of that i talked about how people who came here at the age of three or four through in the ne united states regardless of their state or revenue residence i'm aware of the fact that this is an issue that's been under discussion in congress for a number of years i haven't participated in that debate where you know where the federal statute that i am aware of the fact that  the statute that i was referring to in maryland was a statute that would mirror texas california and other states that allowed in state tuition for people who had been living in their state and who made a commitment to adjust their status as soon as they that unit in maryland versus the federal statute that prohibits a special discount for illegals unless that same discount in state tuition is offered to every american citizen student whatsoever how are you aware that there is a conflict between the state statute and the federal statute while the other states have a number of other states have implemented this and my understanding regard others eight and i'm speaking of maryland and it's my understanding that there are ways to devise that legislation at the state level as republican and democratic governors really want to assure that here we have a legal obligation to make the same commitment to hundreds  to make the money and did the question is how many people on the evidence that you have available actually voted as a result of this broad i can't answer that question sir is there any evidence that anybody voted i don't know the answer that's ok under the voting rights act felony disenfranchisement is alive and well in many states is there anything that the federal government can do to address that where the felony disenfranchisement has the effect or was instituted with the intent to have an adverse effect on the minority community well the issue of felony disenfranchisement has been addressed by a number of states in recent years and obvious i appreciate your leadership on this issue i recall my time with senator kennedy and your leadership on this issue and again it continues to be an issue effect or were implemented with the intent of downloading minority voting strength we have if we receive an allegation of that nature we will certainly investigate it is there anything you can do in light of the constitutional provisions that the states get decide who registers handling the disenfranchisement is illegal i would have to review specific factual circumstances it's very difficult to talk in generalities about this on on housing there are reports that there is widespread still widespread discrimination in housing and hopefully your answer to that court issue will be too long for my little five minutes so if you can provide information on your reducing employment discrimination not appreciate that a couple of years ago the bush administration office of legal counsel issued a memo suggesting that the religious freedom restoration act issues in general terms of it yes you could take a look at that because it was not the intent of anybody who is involved in the passage of the religious freedom restoration act and there are a number of groups religious groups that have complained that it was inaccurate one hundred sixty five to two thousand and one anybody running a federally funded program could not discriminate based on race religion race color creed restore the law the way it was from one nine hundred sixty five to two thousand and one if i think this administration and i know the administration is committed to ensuring that we partner with faith based knowingly benefits financially or by receiving anything of value from participating in a venture which was engaged in any act in violation of section fifteen knowingly or reckless disregard the fact that the venture was and god  or a prostitute from engaging in the activity of the benefits financially that's all you have to prove can you get back with me and let me know how the administration is  administration that was examined by that report hate crime prosecutions dropped i was particularly shocked by this i was the chair of the california state assembly select committee on hate crime and i know that hate crimes increased in california by three hundred percent in the year following nine eleven particularly against arabs and muslims and those thought to be arab or muslim can you explain what happened to and how under your leadership enforcement hate crime laws will be different from that of your predecessor sure again by way of reference in one thousand nine hundred four there were thirty five to crime prosecutions in ninety five there were forty three in ninety six there were thirty eight by comparison in two thousand and five there were twelve two thousand and ten there were two thousand and six there were ten two thousand and seven there were twelve two thousand and eight there were twenty one two thousand nine hundred twenty four trending in the right direction but still a ways to go and again it gets  o my point that trafficking is a very important priority and will continue to be a priority but we can't do these cases at the expense of other cases we certainly have seen and the data demonstrate  increases in hate crime activity across the country and we know that the f b i data understate the extent of the problem because a number of jurisdictions don't report so we have the new statute that i started working on in ninety six when i was working with senator kennedy that's going to give us additional tools to address some of the jurisdictional hurdles that have prevented us from bringing some of these cases in recent years and i think that will really allow us to put our best foot forward the attorney general is very personally committed to moving forward on these and we have i think a very again with the resources that will hopefully flow from the the budget that we hope will be passed in the near future that will provide us with opportunities to expand our hate crimes and force thank you that's very good news on an on another topic the voting rights act of course we know it's critical to ensuring the democratic participation of office and especially racial and language minorities but the g a o report found that when compared with the clinton administration there was a significant drop in the enforcement and it found a sharp decline of that enforcement from more than four cases a year under mr clinton to year under mr bush the voting rights act is particularly important to my district with its large number of latino and asian americans who are primarily proficient in other languages what emphasis what you place on section two or three issues which have to do with language minority persons and how we ensure that protecting the democratic rights of communities with with large percentages of non english speaking  english speaking people is still a priority for the civil rights division the section two or three work that was done by the bush administration was very important and very effective and we will continue that however you cannot do section two or three work at the expense of section two in the clinton ministration the voting section filed thirty five section two cases in the bush administration fifteen were filed section two is a linchpin of the voting rights act and our voting rights protection in this country and i think we can do both i don't think it's an either or question if we leverage our resources properly we have the additional resources coming in that i mentioned and the partnerships that we can put in place with u s attorneys offices i think all of these and frankly working smarter and working more efficiently i'm confident that we can accomplish everything that we need to accomplish to ensure that we enforce the laws all of the laws ok thank you and finally the january part by the department's inspector general cited internal and e mail and personnel files and it confirms that in the last administration that political appointees sought to hire conservatives and black liberals to career position contrary to civil service laws i understand that the attorney general is committed to making the civil rights division one of the strongest in the department into that and you are expecting to hire sixty to one hundred additional employees what will you do to ensure that these new staffers have a range of diverse backgrounds and experiences and what departments within the civil rights division where you focus these additional staff resources and how does this reflect your priorities well the three the three of the priority areas that i have discussed a number of times have been our fair lending work our voting rights work and our hate crimes work and so i expect that a substantial portion of the new resources will be focused in those areas we haven't made the final staffing allotment yet but budgets should reflect your priorities and those areas will receive substantial attention as we move forward and the diversity of the oh yes and  again our web site has our new written hiring policy apologize for not addressing that and i am confident that our the new policy which is much more transparent and available to anyone who's interested in applying pacifically sets forth that we're looking for the best qualified people and i believe that we can for instance in the two or three contacts i have been spent a lot of time in california and in my short tenure in this job and there are many people out there i keep encouraging them to apply a lot of two or three experts and advocates and i'm confident that in the end of the day we will recruit the best qualified candidates and candidates that reflect those diverse background that is certainly the best way to restore and to carry out our mission thank you prosecutions that i just described i have data going back to nine hundred ninety three when i was a career attorney in the section we kept data every year and so that's why i can tell you that in fiscal year ninety four there were thirty five hate crimes cases brought up those thirty five cases sixteen were cross burning cases and the remainder were other sorts of cases so this data has been collected throughout a number of on the number of cases i'm confident are accurate data but that does not obviate the need for us to implement the recommendations that were set forth in the g a o report we are actually i'm having a meeting  next week with a technology working group that we're putting together so that we can ensure that we're in twenty first century technologically that we have systems in place that can capture almost any question that you right division division it deals with voting rights have been particularly problematic during the course of the last ten years well we certainly have the data speaks for itself i mean there were certainly a lesser number of section two cases that were brought there was enhanced unfortunate in section two or three there were a number of cases brought there and there were other areas where there wasn't as much done that that certainly the data certainly bears that out of officials new york apartment or high allegation we will conduct an investigation we will apply the facts to the law and reach a conclusion if you have people who are long term employees of the  department of justice and attorney general's office to indicate that this is clearly abuse and you can take action against the individuals and on getting a judgment you would be able to  panthers when you got the video of what occurred in philadelphia instead of ordering the dismissal of what was clearly going to be a judgment and could have allowed for discovery to be forthcoming and s out whether or not there was a widespread conspiracy or whether this intimidation was limited to philadelphia to career attorneys with over sixty years of experience reviewed the decisions that were made on january seventh two thousand and nine by the previous administration reached a conclusion that the charges against one of the the next in the penalty application and obtain the next in the penalty and concluded that based on the facts and the application of the facts to the law that the charges were not sustainable against the remaining defendants and were you aware that they did not even file an answer how is that not sustainable they didn't file an answer they were going to get a judgment and what were the names of those career officers who could not figure out that the judgment that the judge asked for it to be prepared and submitted that it certainly a acting deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights had those two been handling the case they were the two people in the front office the two career people who were overseeing that case they were overseeing but they were not handling that they  were reviewing the case and they reviewed the entire record and made the judgment regarding the application or our opinion with your distinguished career and your great education and experience that when you have a judgment that the judges ask for judgment you need to be able to represent to the court there's a rule rule eleven that requires you to be able to represent to the court that the charges you are putting forth are charges that are supported by the facts in the  of those guys out in front of that polling place all of whenever a case is brought to anyone's attention when you read the video of the individuals out in front of that all important it's important congressman to review the because it was i was not working all year and i knew my question is no you did not review that video is that i have incredible confidence in the judgment of the two thousand people who are my question is no you never saw the video carried out in a manner that is free of intimidation that i also share your desire to ensure that investigations are fully and fairly carried out i look forward to the results of the investigation we have cooperated fully will continue to guidance you're providing to local school systems and universities and others about how to fashion desegregation programs and formative action programs so they can pass constitutional muster and if you can get back to me on that  appreciate it i look forward to discussing that issue with you so that i thank i think the witness i thank the members so that we don't miss the votes on the floor there now four votes on the floor the minutes and forty five seconds subcommittee will come back to order again i thank everyone for waiting while we were voting will now proceed with our second panel and that would ask the witnesses to take their places in the interest of time i'll introduce you  once you've taken your seats with you have i mean reagan allowed the rent's currently serves as director of homeland security and justice issues of the us the government accountability office in this capacity she manages congressional requests to assess various law enforcement department of justice issues as well as the state of terrorism related information sharing since nine eleven ms lorenz has a master's in public administration degree and extensive experience at g a o grace chung becker served as the acting assistant attorney general for the civil rights division of the united states department of justice from two thousand and seven until getting in two thousand and nine she previously served as an associate deputy general counsel at the department of defen she also has worked as a federal prosecutor in the criminal division of the justice department is just in general counsel of the united states sentencing commission counsel to the senate judiciary committee and an associate at the law firm of williams and tonally earlier in her career ms becker clerked for judge laude from the georgetown university law center where she was a member of the order of the quiet and was an associate editor at the georgetown law journal joseph rich is the director of the fair housing project at the lawyers committee for civil rights under law he has served in this position since ninety two thousand and five before joining the lawyers committee mr rich spent his entire legal career in the department of justice a civil rights division we litigated and supervised hundreds of civil rights cases in one thousand nine hundred ninety two thousand and five he served as the chief of the voting section prior to tenure in the voting section mr ridge spent twelve years as deputy chief in the housing and civil important section of the civil rights division additionally served as deputy chief in trial attorney civil rights in the civil rights division welcome all of you written statements will be made part of the recognition tired in their entirety i would ask each of you to summarize your testimony in five minutes or less say within that time is a lighting tape of timing light at your table when one minute remains the light will switch from green to yellow and then subcommittee appreciate the opportunity to summarize a result of our review of the activities of the voting employment housing and special litigation sections of the just a civil rights division from two thousand and one through two thousand and seven we hope this information will serve as a useful bas respond to division or section priorities and some sections give priority to matters in cases addressed a pattern or practice of discrimination because resolving these can have the greatest impact the voting section is responsible statute to protect the rights of racial language minorities disabled illiterate persons and overseas military voters in addition to laws under duress voter registration voting systems and other issues most of those sections four hundred forty two matters and plaintiff cases involve language minorities especially spanish speakers under section two or three of the voting rights act which requires bilingual voting materials one section chief noted this was a shift in priorities for the section given progress in addressing racial discrimination at large voting systems an emerging tensions over immigration although the current section chief concerns with that system still exists the section pursued about a third of matters in a fourth of its cases under section two with half of these matters and three of these cases on behalf of african americans and one case on behalf of white the section also pursued cases involving the purge of ineligible voters from registration list a division priority has been have of its time and its mandate to pre clear almost one hundred twenty thousand proposals from jurisdiction to change your voting procedures the section objected to forty two changes primarily involving redistricting the employment section focused most of its thirty two hundred matters on issues of employment discrimination against individuals because of referrals from other agencies of the number of referrals declined over the seven years the section filed cases of plaintive including eleven pattern of practice cases mostly involving sex and racial discrimination including the sections first to pattern or practice cases brought to be have a voice current section staff would not speculate on why the section focused efforts in particular area we cannot determine the subject and protected class of more than eighty percent of the matters for the section because of the division did not require all sections to record these data or the reasons matters are not pursued in their case management system the housing section is responsible for enforcing statutes preventing discrimination in housing credit transactions and public accommodations as well as religious discrimination in land use the section had discretion except for certain referrals from tide which is section had to file in court most of its nine hundred forty seven matters and two hundred seventy seven cases pursued under the fair housing act and involved a pattern or practice of discrimination address discrimination based on race and disability in part because a section priorities and land use owning a rental issue the sections workload decreased during the seven years according to the section this was in large measure due to referrals decreasing as to discrimination in lending matters address age and marital status and cases address racial and national origin issues the special litigation sections focus most of its efforts on addressing conditions of those confined in institutions such as correction or mental health facilities with priority on juvenile correctional facilities the section also enforced statutes for having law enforcement misconduct although the time spent on these issues decreased over the seven years at the direction of division management the section plays lower priority on enforcing religious freedoms of institutionalized persons including prisoners in closing this to record data on the subject and the protected class in its case management system as well as consider how to record data on the reasons for closing matters as it explores its future case management system the department agreed it is already taking division mr chairman that concludes my statement and i would be happy to answer any question thank you and i never recognize ms bakker for five minutes thank you chairman adler and good good morning or good afternoon more years of the bush administration then in the eight years of the clinton administration in calendar year two thousand and six a loan the men and women in the section filed that is more than twice the annual average over the preceding thirty years they filed more cases under the language minority provisions of the voting rights act than the clinton bush reagan carter and all other previous administrations combined including the section and the solicitor general's office to successfully defend the voting rights act the reauthorized voting rights act some constitutional challenge the men and women in the criminal section also set new records in fiscal year two thousand and eight filed the highest annual number of cases in the history of the division and in two thousand and six they had a ninety eight percent conviction rate the highest ever in the divisions history the increase human trafficking prosecutions by six hundred and charged two hundred defendants in a hundred thirty five hate crime cases similarly the men and women in the employment litigation section filed more lawsuits in two thousand and eight than in any previous  division's history they also broke the record then for the highest number of lawsuits filed in a single year under the uniform services employment and reemployment rights act and i'm heartened to hear that the new administration has already broken that record the men and women in the special litigation section more than tripled the number of settlements of police departments in the last administration in the first six years of that administration by over two hundred the number of juvenile justice investigations that they opened and in county year two thousand and seven they opened seven new investigations as compared to the annual average of ten in the preceding thirteen years the men and women of the disability rights section helped over three million individuals with disabilities projects civic access agreements in all fifty states they brought accessible to the largest college stadium in the country the university of michigan and worked with the international fiscal year two thousand seven hundred tourney general initiative called operation home sweet home they then broke that record again in two thousand and eight and they increased by thirty six percent the number of sexual harassment cases filed under the fair housing act in the last administration and as the g a o report indicates they spent ninety percent of their time working on the pattern and practice cases the men and women in the appellate section were also very productive and successful in fiscal year two thousand and seven their ninety five percent success rate was the highest since they started keeping statistics over thirty years ago and lastly the men and women in the employment education appellate special litigation and housing and civil enforcement section work to protect perhaps one of the most traditional civil rights that we have one dating back to the colonists who first came to this country to avoid religious persecution the work of these individuals to help fight religious of any additional information in these cases or copies of the files of the files we had three files in the voting section that indicated that the division did not agree to move the cases  tracked information from the file is that the normal procedure when you examine a government department when you've examined the department prior to two thousand and one is it the normal procedure that you can't copy the documents you get only inspect them in some cases we the department does not ask us to not keep files because of the sensitivities of the people under investigation in some matters we do agree to honor their concerns about that to use letters of those nature is present in these of in these cases and in some cases i think the parties under investigation may not have been aware that they were under investigation so that was sensitive basis for us suspecting that there was a discrimination against native americans i don't understand that because a lot of republicans in the jurisdiction therefore you can't nobody can and we suspect that that was very much the case and we recommended the decision was that now this is just because there are so many republicans in the district that we're not going to investigate and i thought that that reflected  stopped from pursuing the voting case i mentioned in particular can you tell us anything about why even for the contact with state officials thank you chairman adler i was not given the opportunity that  respond there is time we did lay a little foundation here mr chairman anita moncrief former acorn employee has given testimony under oath and i'd like to summarize parts of that project but received an obama donor list from the obama campaign project both solicited obama donors to pay for the voter registration and to quote get out the vote project vote received donor list from other democrat and labor unions sources project but develop a plan to approach maxed out presidential donors and allegedly use the funds for voter registration drives  acorn employees were paid through project vote for parties and campaign activities telling voters to not vote for certain candidates there were inadequate divisions between the staff of acorn and project vote in person working for one entity actually performed work for either or both organizations acorn chose which states in the project vote would conduct voter registration drives based on political considerations registration drives by project but were conducted in battleground states that could change the outcome of the election so i'd like to ask this is her testimony the things that i just delineated this is i so i'd like to ask each of the witnesses whether they think that these statements raise any issues regarding violations of the federal election campaign act of one nine hundred seventy one as amended which prohibits corporate contributions to campaigns of federal candidates or corporate expenditures to support oppose a federal candidate and to also prohibit expenditures by nonprofit corporation such as acorn and project vote which are made in coordination with at the request of behest or suggestion by the material involvement of a federal campaign such as the we were able to look at a small set a files for matters across the force and within so for example we only looked at maybe about files for each of the sections and within those for example in the voting section those files only contain three instances in which the information we had indicated that there may have been a disagreement with the division  money congress and i think that would be a question that's better directed to the current civil rights division of the just under the bush administration could they discriminate in employment you can't discriminate on the basis of religion in  i think i think you've answered the question i would hope you could get a response in writing to us on the very specific question was it the view of the department that a faith based organization with federal dollars require that the hiring be only from that for example the same religious group that a presbyterian church we don't want to hire catholics with federal for this federally funded program yes certainly would be something that is a question to be asked to the department and i will speak as to my interpretation of the response that i've gotten here i think mr perez was a very difficult witness to get an answer from and when he was asked repeatedly have you reviewed the film of the philadelphia voter intimidation case over and over again i have to go back to the film to tell you how many times i say six or eight times mr gohmert asking that specific question and finally at the end of that series of repetitive repetition of the question he finally said yes philadelphia received the maximum penalty and i think we've established didn't receive the maximum penalty so i'm going to make this position mr chairman i do not believe mr peres was truthful with us and i believe the smaller issues and that there have been people that have gone to jail for what i'm implying may well have happened before this committee and i want to go back and review the record gentlemen i think the gentleman is approaching or may have exceeded the bounds of the rules implying that we need to go to jail may want to rephrase that i suggest that if you review the record i don't believe i have crossed the line i referred to it as an implication and  the implications of being untruthful to this committee is something we should be able to speak up openly on this panel and this entire panel democrats and republicans should be outraged by any corruption of law any corruption of the electoral process any kind of criminal enterprise that you this question if there is a statute that specifically sets aside benefits from the taxpayer for women and minorities you tell me the distinction between that definition of women and minorities and the language that would read anybody but  publicly registered voters gone to all the minority voters repetitively i believe that that's a pattern that we should look into in the civil rights perspective i say that in this panel for that purpose to bring a focus on those kind of issues i believe when this legislature when this congress defines anything in legislation as set aside for women and minorities it says the same thing as anybody but white men i thank you all for your testimony and i yield back the balance of my time gentleman's time is expired since some question has arisen i will place in the record the order actually entered into in the new black panther case which will reveal what was actually cooperation and for your attendance and for your answers without objection all members have five legislative days to submit to the chair additional written questions to the witnesses which we will forward and as the witnesses to respond is probably as they can say their answers may be made part of the record without