Frank Riggs: “in fact it has been well documented that the existing admissions policies at the University of California discriminate…”

“in fact it has been well documented that the existing admissions policies at the University of California discriminate against the minority group Asian-Americans. So what we are trying to do here is make sure that the Department of Education, through my amendment, is not able to withhold Federal funding or pursue other sanctions against California universities if they eliminate, as they are required to do by Proposition 209 and the people of California, race-based preferences in college admissions. My amendment would prevent State universities from being caught in this odd position of either defying a Federal court or losing millions of dollars, potentially losing millions of dollars in Federal funding. My amendment would, as I said, prohibit the Department of Education from withholding funds from schools, from colleges and universities located in States that have a law or a court order prohibiting affirmative action, like California, again through Proposition 209, the California Civil Rights Initiative. I just want to clarify one other thing for my colleagues. There are claims now that the repeal of race-based preferences or affirmative action admissions in California have had an effect on applications and admissions at the postgraduate schools at the University of California, the professional schools. So far the results have been very mixed in California.”