such order, until the matter is taken into court, the committee believes that the procedure herein provided may well strengthen the hand of the Commission in its efforts to remove unlawful employment piactices by conciliation and mediation.

(4) The committee does not feel that the procedure of this section will unduly burden the Federal courts. To obviate such a possibility, however, this section allows the court to appoint a master to hear actions brought under this act.

(5) Recognizing that this section is a departure from the traditional procedural patterns, the committee wishes specifically to serve notice of its intent to review the effectiveness of the established procedure at the end of 2 years of Commission activity.

C. Section 3 (c) specifically provides for coverage by this act of the U.S. Employment Service and the system of State and local employment services receiving Federal assistance. This provision results from persuasive testimony to the effect that all too often these employment agencies supported almost entirely by Federal funds, serve to perpetuate and reinforce discriminatory employment patterns which are repugnant to national policy.

D. Some question has been raised both as to the advisability of including prohibition of employment discrimination because of age in this act (sec. 6) and as to the workability of the provisions of the section.

As was indicated earlier in this report, there can be no question as to the existence of arbitrary denial of employment opportunity because of age. The committee sees no reason to treat such arbitrary denial in any substantially different fashion from other employment discrimination.

This view is supported by the action of seven States which have amended their fair employment practices laws to include prohibition of employment discrimination because of age. On this point, the studies of the Department of Labor are pertinent. Speaking of States where employment discrimination because of age has been prohibited, the Department says:

It appears that there has been general improvement in the climate of acceptance of older workers for job vacancies. Mention of age in newspaper advertisements has been virtually eliminated. At the same time, specific opportunities for interviews and presentation of qualification by the older worker have improved with consequent increased chances for employment.

In response to queries from the committee, both the New York and Pennsylvania Fair Employment Practices Commissions report that their experience to date with administration of age amendments has not been substantially different from experience with other aspects.

In recognition of the fact that certain differing bodies of expert knowledge are required in different areas of employment discrimination, the act provides, in section 8(f), that the Commission shall maintain separate divisions within its staff for handling different categories of unlawful employment practices.

It is not the intention of the committee in this section to interfere with any bona fide pension, retirement, or seniority system. Nor does the committee intend to require alteration of the actuarial basis

of existent pension programs, unless they are used as a subterfuge for discrimination because of age. It is, however, felt to be better legislative procedure to leave precise formulation of approaches in this matter to the administrative interpretations of the Commission rather than actually to write into the act provisions which might well prove overly rigid in actual experience. For example, the New York State Commission Against Discrimination has, through administrative ruling, allowed the following variations:

(1) Compulsory retirement plans, with funded or nonfunded benefits, established before the effective date of the law;

(2) Compulsory retirement plans established after effective date of the law, provided that the plans are reasonable with respect to overall employment policy and the occupational categories affected;

(3) Exclusion of a new employee from pension plans (or reduction of benefits) where said new employee will not have accrued the length of service required for full participation by the time of compulsory retirement;

(4) Careful individual consideration of claims that employment of persons over a certain age will adversely affect the costs of a retirement policy or system;

(5) Varying of group life insurance coverage with increasing

age.

E. The committee wishes to make quite clear its intention to respect the rights of States and municipalities which carry on effective programs to eliminate and prohibit discrimination in employment. Thus, section 10(b) of the act provides that the Commission shall, where such effective power exists and is effectively being exercised, seek written agreements with the State or municipal agency under which the Commission shall refrain from bringing civil action in a case or class of cases referred to in such agreement.

This careful provision for cooperative action between the Federal agency on the one hand and the State or municipal agency on the other derives from extensive testimony before the committee from personnel administering State and municipal laws to the effect that, in their opinion, State and local laws would be strengthened by the backing of a Federal law in this area. State commissions, as noted earlier, have encountered difficulty in dealing with the large, multiphased operations of businesses in interstate commerce and welcome Federal legislation in this area to fill the gaps in areas where they lack jurisdiction.

Subsequent to this testimony the act has been endorsed by many political leaders on the State and local level.

F. As to the cost of this act, the committee believes it wise to establish, by provisions of section 18, a ceiling of $2,500,000 for the administration of the act by the Commission during the first year after its enactment and not to exceed $10 million for this purpose during the second year after such date.

G. The committee has scrupulously aimed to establish close cooperation between the Commission and other Federal agencies concerned with discrimination in employment. Section 20 provides for participation in planning Commission activities, during the first organizational year, of the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Section 13

allows the President in his judgment to have Commission authority supplement or supplant the activities of his Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity. Since the Commission on Civil Rights is primarily a study agency and has broader areas of concern than strictly employment problems, the committee sees no conflict between its activities and the activities of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS OF THE BILL

Section 1. Short title

This section provides that the act may be cited as the "Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Act."

Section 2. Findings and declaration of policy

Subsection (a) of this section states a congressional finding that discrimination in employment against qualified persons because of race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, or age is contrary to American principles of liberty and equality of opportunity, is incompatible with the Constitution, forces segments of the population into substandard living conditions, foments industrial strife and domestic unrest, deprives the Nation of full use of its productive capacity, endangers the national security and general welfare, and adversely affects the domestic and foreign commerce of the United States.

Subsection (b) sets forth a congressional declaration that all persons within the jurisdiction of the United States have a right to employment without discrimination on account of race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, or age, as more precisely described in sections 5, 6, and 7. It is also declared to be the national policy to protect the right of persons to be free from such discrimination.

Subsection (c) declares that the act is necessary to remove obstructions to the free flow of interstate and foreign commerce and to insure the complete and full enjoyment by all persons of the rights, privileges, and immunities secured and protected by the Constitution.

Section 3. Definitions

This section contains definitions of a number of the terms used in the act. A number of these definitions are important to an understanding of the act.

"Employer" is defined to mean a person engaged in commerce who has 25 or more employees, except that during the first year after the date the enforcement provisions of the act become operative employers having fewer than 100 employees will not be covered, and during the second year after such date, employers with fewer than 50 will not be covered. The definition excludes from the term "employer" all Federal, State, and local government agencies, and bona fide membership clubs (other than labor organizations) which are tax exempt under the Internal Revenue Code.

"Employment agency" is defined to include any person who regularly undertakes to procure employees for an employer or to procure, for employees, opportunities to work. It is explicitly stated that the U.S. Employment Service and the system of State and local employment services receiving Federal assistance will be covered. Other governmental agencies will not be covered.

"Labor organization" is defined in substantially the same way that term is defined in the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, except that State and local central bodies will be treated as are other labor organizations.

Labor organizations will be covered only if they are engaged in an industry affecting commerce within the meaning of the act, and subsection (e) of this section describes the labor organizations which are so engaged. This provision is the same as the comparable provision in the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, except that it excludes any labor organization having fewer than 25 members. Also, during the first year after the date the enforcement provisions of the act become operative, a labor organization having fewer than 100 members will be excluded from coverage, and, during the second year after such date, those having fewer than 50 members will be so excluded.

The terms "employee," "commerce," "industry affecting commerce," and "State" are defined for the purposes of the act in the manner common for Federal statutes.

Section 4. Exemptions

This section provides the requirements of the act will not apply with respect to the employment of aliens outside a State, or to religious corporations, associations, or societies.

Section 5. Discrimination because of race, religion, color, national origin, or ancestry

Subsection (a) describes a number of activities which, if engaged in by employers, will constitute unlawful employment practices. It will be an unlawful employment practice for an employer to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise discriminate against. any individual with respect to compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of race, religion, color, national origin, or ancestry. It will also be an unlawful employment practice for an employer to limit, segregate, or classify his employees in any way which would deprive or tend to deprive any person of employment opportunities or otherwise adversely affect his status as an employee, because of his race, religion, color, national origin, or ancestry.

Subsection (b) provides that it will be an unlawful employment practice for an employment agency, because of race, religion, color, national origin, or ancestry, to fail or refuse to refer an individual for employment or otherwise to discriminate against him, or for such an agency to classify or refer any person for employment on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, or ancestry.

Subsection (c) describes a number of unlawful employment practices of labor organizations. Under this subsection it will be an unlawful employment practice for a labor organization to exclude or expel any person from its membership because of race, religion, color, national origin, or ancestry. It will be an unlawful employment practice for a labor organization to limit, segregate, or classify its membership so as to deprive or tend to deprive any person of employment opportunities or to limit such opportunities, or otherwise adversely affect his status as an employee or as a job applicant because of his race, religion, color, national origin, or ancestry. It will also be an unlawful employment practice for a labor organization to cause

or attempt to cause an employer to discriminate against an individual in violation of this section.

Subsection (d) makes it an unlawful employment practice for persons controlling apprenticeship or other training programs to discriminate because of race, religion, color, national origin, or ancestry in admission to, or employment in, such a program.

Section 6. Discrimination because of age

Subsection (a) makes it an unlawful employment practice for an employer to fail or refuse to hire any person or to discriminate against any person with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, otherwise lawful, because of his age. However, such discrimination will be prohibited only when the reasonable demands of the position do not require such an age distinction, and no discrimination arising by reason of the operation of a seniority system would be deemed to be an unlawful employment practice.

Subsection (b) makes it an unlawful employment practice for an employment agency to fail or refuse to classify or to refer for employment, or otherwise to discriminate against any person because of his age, or to classify or to refer for employment any individual on the basis of age, but, again, only when the reasonable demands of the position or positions involved do not require an age distinction.

Subsection (c) makes it an unlawful employment practice for a labor organization to exclude from its membership or to discriminate against a person because of his age if the reasonable demands of the position or positions involved do not require such an age distinction or for such an organization to cause or to attempt to cause an employer to discriminate against an individual in violation of this section.

Subsection (d) makes it an unlawful employment practice for a person controlling an apprenticeship or other training program to discriminate in admission to or employment in an apprenticeship or other training program because of his age, if the reasonable demands of the position being trained for do not require such distinction.

Section 7. Other unlawful employment practices

Subsection (a) of this section makes it an unlawful employment practice for an employer, employment agency, or labor organization to discriminate in any manner against another person because he has opposed any practice made an unlawful employment practice by other sections of the act or because he has made a charge, testified, assisted, or participated in any manner in the enforcement of the act.

Subsection (b) makes it an unlawful employment practice for an employer, labor organization, or employment agency to be responsible for the publishing of any notice or advertisement indicating a preference, limitation, specification, or discrimination based on race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, or age, except where such preference, limitation, specification, or discrimination is based on religion when religion is a bona fide qualification for employment or based on age when the reasonable demands of the position require such a preference, limitation, specification, or discrimination. It should be noted that the prohibitions of this section do not require newspapers and other publications to exercise any control or supervision over, or to do any screening of, the advertisements and notices published by them.