Massive minority and gender hiring rules buried in finance bill

Buried deep in the bowels of the massive financial-regulation bill the Senate passed Thursday are massive race- and gender-employment provisions that will cost countless millions to enforce and appear to duplicate other civil-rights initiatives already in place.

More importantly, all private financial institutions doing business with the federal government will be affected by them, sources tell Newsmax.

Opponents say the provision was put in the bill to help garner political support for its passage. They object that it was inserted with almost no discussion or debate, and call it a "power grab."

Diana Furchtgott-Roth, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute who served as chief of staff for former President George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, tells Newsmax that the rules represent a "dramatic change in employment legislation."

Four members of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights recently penned a letter to Vice President Joe Biden, Majority Leader Harry Reid, and several other leading senators, objecting to the new fair-employment regime in the Dodd-Frank legislation now headed to the president's desk.

"The likelihood that it will in fact promote discrimination is overwhelming," the letter states.

Section 342 of the bill calls for an "Office of Minority and Women Inclusion" to be established in each of 29 federal bureaus and offices.

The regulations appear to go beyond ensuring that discrimination in hiring decisions does not occur. Instead, they require assurance of "fair inclusion." Furchtgott-Roth says it will pressure companies to find and hire minorities even if one hasn't applied for a specific job.

The bill's affirmative action provisions — some suggest they are de facto quotas — would apply not only to the 29 federal agencies but also to all "financial institutions, investment banking firms, mortgage banking firms, asset management firms, brokers, dealers, financial services entities, underwriters, accountants, investment consultants, and providers of legal services" who do business with them.

Moreover, the law also applies to those firms' sub-contractors "as applicable."