Mike Honda: “In May of 2002, the General Accounting Office released a report that revealed an alarming disparity in salaries and…”

“In May of 2002, the General Accounting Office released a report that revealed an alarming disparity in salaries and rates of promotion between minorities when compared to which males in the same jobs at the Department of Energy's National Laboratories. GAO found that salaries for minority men and women and white women were lower than for white men, with the exceptions of Asian-American men at Los Alamos and Sandia and Hispanic men at Lawrence Livermore. Comparing men and women of the same race/ethnicity, GAO found that White, Asian, and Hispanic women earned less than their male counterparts. The report also found that there are further areas for investigation. For example, with over 300 Asian-American professional staff at Lawrence Livermore, not one was promoted to a managerial position between 1998 and 2000. When the report was released, I called for congressional hearings to determine the cause of these inequities so that we may remedy them to ensure that the Department of Energy can recruit and retain the highest quality ethnically diverse work force. Unfortunately, the Science Committee took no action on this issue. The Wu/Johnson amendment would finally bring about some congressional action, by requiring the Secretary of Energy to report to Congress on DOE labs' equal employment opportunity practices in promotion, pay raise, discipline, and recruitment and retention efforts. I urge my colleagues to support the amendment.”