Black Caucus Urges Bush to help Close Gap Between Black & White Americans

President Bush met with the Congressional Black Caucus at the White House yesterday. The New York Times (1/27, Hulse) says the lawmakers presented Bush "with proposals for closing the gap between white and black Americans in health care, employment and education and said they would judge his response by weighing the State of the Union address and federal budget." The Times adds that "about 40 members of the...Caucus pressed the president for more attention to what they see as striking disparities in opportunity between blacks and whites across a broad range of areas." Rep. Mel Watt (D-NC), chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said the purpose of the meeting was to offer Bush the agenda in hopes that the president will incorporate the plan into his domestic policies and allocate more funds to close disparities in education, employment, health-care, criminal justice, retirement security and foreign policy. Bush "was joined at the meeting by Condoleezza Rice after her confirmation by the Senate as secretary of state. Representative Elijah E. Cummings, Democrat of Maryland, said Ms. Rice, who is the first African-American woman to hold the post, was congratulated by many of the caucus members." The meeting Wednesday marked only the second time since Bush took office in 2000 that the president has met with the 43-member Congressional Black Caucus. The Frontrunner January 27, 2005 and [more] and [more] and [more]

• Pictured above: Congressional Black Caucus members left the White House Wednesday after meeting with President Bush. They were, from left, Sheila Jackson Lee, Barack Obama, Eleanor Holmes Norton and William Lacy Clay. [more]
• Rep. Mel Watt on NPR: I think it was politically polite and potentially productive. I can't say that we came out of the meeting yesterday with any concrete things, but it was cordial. So in that sense, it was politically polite. But it could be productive, because there are two additional opportunities immediately and ongoing opportunities for the president to make it productive. And the next opportunity, of course, will be in the State of the Union address where he could use his bully pulpit to really talk about closing some of these disparities that continue to exist between African-Americans and the majority community. And then right after that, he'll have the opportunity to submit his budget, and there'll be another opportunity for him to tell you what his values are and whether he supports closing those disparities.
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