Sen. Edward M. Kennedy attacked the Bush administration Thursday for giving mere ``lip service to the fight to end bigotry'' while the White House renewed both support for civil rights and its threat to veto a bill the Massachusetts Democrat is sponsoring. ``The administration's veto threat underscores the sharp contrast between its words and its deeds on civil rights,'' said Kennedy, whose bill to combat job bias is a major goal of civil rights forces in Congress this year. Kennedy's comments came after presidential spokesman Marlin Fitzwater told reporters at the White House that the administration is ``for civil rights legislation'' but ``we are simply not for that bill.'' The Kennedy bill is aimed at restoring legal tools that civil rights forces say were taken away by six Supreme Court decisions last year. Provisions range from a ban on harassment of employees to expanding workers' rights to challenge seniority systems based on discrimination. The heart of the bill, based on a case at a salmon cannery in Alaska, would force employers accused of discrimination to change their hiring practices or prove that the practices were based on business necessity. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh said in his letter to Kennedy on Tuesday that this provision, aimed at overturning the Supreme Court's ``Wards Cove'' decision last year, would in effect result in racial hiring quotas. Kennedy said in his statement that while ``giving lip service to the fight to end bigotry, the administration is clinging to its do-as-little-as-possible response to the Supreme Court's recent decisions, which dramatically cut back on long-accepted protections for working men and women against discrimination on the job.'' ``The administration is digging in its heels at a time when a bipartisan majority in the Congress and the country want to see those decisions overturned and the gaps in our civil rights laws filled,'' Kennedy said. The Bush administration is calling for approval of a more modest job-discrimination bill, which would address two of last year's rulings. ``We are interested in correcting problems which arose from last year's Supreme Court cases,'' Fitzwater said. Kennedy's Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee on Wednesday approved his measure, 11-5, with support from Sens. David Durenberger, R-Minn., and James Jeffords, R-Vt. Durenberger told the panel that the administration would not act on civil rights without pressure from the committee. The measure now has 40 Senate co-sponsors and civil rights forces say they have enough votes for passage. But conservative critics led by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, say they hope to ease some of its provisions in floor action. Hatch told the committee that the measure would create a ``bonanza for lawyers'' while Sen. Nancy Kassebaum, R-Kan., declared that it would ``add litigation.''
