Over 125 Groups Urge President Obama to “Finish the Job” and Extend Ban-the-Box to Federal Contractors
Recipient: President Barack Obama
View the PDF of this letter here.
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mr. President:
On behalf of the 136 organizations and 64 individuals listed below, we are writing to commend your administration’s demonstrated commitment to reducing barriers to employment for people with arrest and conviction records and to renew our call for additional action that extends “ban the box” and fair chance hiring to the nation’s government contractors.
On March 25, 2015, many of our organizations first wrote to you making the case for an executive order leveraging the federal government’s significant resources to expand employment opportunities for people with records by requiring federal contractors to adopt fair chance hiring. The administration’s November 2, 2015, initiative applying “ban the box” to the federal hiring process and the White House Fair Chance Business Pledge announced on April 11 have set the baseline standards for the nation’s private employers to follow. While more private employers are voluntarily embracing fair chance hiring, there is no adequate substitute for requiring the 170,000 federal contractors that employ nearly 25 percent of the nation’s workforce to adopt ban the box in return for the $700 billion they receive to provide taxpayer-subsidized goods and services.
Moreover, because most of the nation’s largest federal contractors operate across state lines, they are already subject to multiple state and local ban the box laws. Indeed, seven states (Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, and Rhode Island) and many of the nation’s largest cities (including Baltimore, Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, Seattle, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.) have fair hiring mandates in place covering private sector employers. As a result, roughly 25 percent of the nation’s civilian workforce (or over 40 million workers) are employed in a state or locality where private sector employers are obligated to comply with a ban the box law. Thus, abundant precedent exists to help pave the way for a federal executive order regulating the nation’s private contractors.
On November 2, 2015, the White House expressed support for extending ban the box to federal contractors but withheld executive action because it was “encouraged that Congress is considering bi-partisan legislation that would ‘ban the box’ for federal hiring and federal contractors.” Unfortunately, since that time, the prospects for timely passage of the Fair Chance Act (S. 2021/H.R. 3470) have remained elusive. Thus, given the limited window of opportunity remaining before the current presidential term ends, we urge the administration to build on its significant record of accomplishments and take the critical next step at its disposal to help achieve full participation of people with records in the workplace.
Seizing on the momentum across the country and the expanding job market, we urge you to immediately issue an Executive Order leveraging federal taxpayer dollars to ensure that federal contractors do their part to eliminate unnecessary and discriminatory barriers to employment for the 70 million people in this country with criminal records. For more information, please contact Maurice Emsellem at the National Employment Law Project (510-663-5700/[email protected]) or Sakira Cook at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights (202-263-2894/[email protected]). Thank you.
Sincerely,
National Organizations
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#cut50 9to5, National Association of Working Women AFL-CIO American Civil Liberties Union American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) AIDS United All Eyes On Africa Communications All of Us or None Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO (APALA) Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law Center for Community Change Center for Popular Democracy Central Conference of American Rabbis Church of Scientology National Affairs Office Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants, CURE Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) Coalition for Juvenile Justice Coalition on Human Needs ColorofChange Collateral Consequences Resource Center Drug Policy Alliance Friends Committee on National Legislation Give Something Back Office Supplies, Inc. Global Citizens Fight Corruption in America In the Public Interest Insight Center for Community Economic Development Institute for Science and Human Values Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility Interfaith Worker Justice JustLeadershipUSA Justice Policy Institute LatinoJustice PRLDEF Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights Legal Action Center Legal Services for Prisoners with Children Main Street Alliance MoveOn.org Civic Action Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies |
NAACP NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers National Center for Lesbian Rights National Center for Transgender Equality National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA) National Council of Jewish Women National Employment Law Project National H.I.R.E. Network National Housing Law Project National LGBTQ Task Force National People’s Action National Urban League National Women’s Law Center National Workrights Institute Partnership for Working Families PICO National Network PolicyLink Pride at Work Rosenberg Foundation Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC) Sugar Law Center for Economic & Social Justice The Dream Corps The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights The Sentencing Project Transport Workers Union Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries United States Student Association V.O.T.E. W. Haywood Burns Institute We Are All Criminals Women Donors Network Working Families Party Working Narratives Zevin Asset Management
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State and Local Organizations
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9to5 California 9to5 Colorado 9to5 Georgia 9to5 Wisconsin A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment & Healing) A New Way of Life Reentry Project Alliance of Communities Transforming Syracuse Anti-Recidivism Coalition Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Los Angeles Because Black is Still Beautiful California Coalition for Women Prisoners Californians for Safety and Justice Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB) Center for Community Alternatives Chevy Chase Presbyterian Church, Earth Stewards Chicago Jobs Council Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth Coleman Group, LLC Colorado Center on Law and Policy Community Service Society of New York Criminal Justice Initiative Criminal Justice Reform Institute, LLC DC Fiscal Policy Institute East Bay Community Law Center Essie Justice Group Greater Boston Legal Services Hands Across the Bridge Human Rights Pen Pals Jesuit Social Research Institute Just Schools Project
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Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area LifeLine to Success Madison Organizing in Strength Equality and Solidarity North Carolina Justice Center New Mexico Voices for Children Ohio Poverty Law Center Park View Mennonite Church Public Justice Center Reconnections Resilient Wellness Root & Rebound Safe Return Safer Foundation San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper San Francisco Children of Incarcerated Parents Partnership SCALE, Inc. Sex Workers Project Smart Technologies Consulting Social Action Linking Together (SALT) Southern Coalition for Social Justice Southern Poverty Law Center Spanish Apostolate of the North Fork SunflowerLife, LLC Virginia CURE Voices of Community Activists & Leaders (VOCAL-NY) WayPass, City College of San Francisco William E. Morris Institute for Justice |
Individuals
Van Jones, President and Founder, The Dream Corps
Monique W. Morris, Ed.D., Author & Co-Founder of the National Black Women’s Justice Institute
Chris Redlitz, Co-Founder, The Last Mile
Members of All of Us or None
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Andres Abarra Moala Alipate Amir Amma Varick Miguel Avila Basil Awwad Octave Baker Alexandra Berliner Cameron Bills Sheila Blake Sam Brooks Aaron Burris Rheema Calloway Jerome Carloss Michael Cole Hamdiya Cooks Kimberley Culotta Steve Czifra Harriette Davis Lenise Devers Miki Elster Jerry Elster Alex Esparza Dvina Estrella Linda Evans Jazel Flores Ana Fox-Hodess George Galvis Fernando Gasca Maritza Gonzalez-Tellez Rene Guillory Felipe Hernandez |
AmberRose Howard Vanessa Jackson Solari Jenkins Sandra Johnson Edmond Juicy Tynan Krakoff Arthur League Ruben Leal Monique Lewis Talitha Lott Mathew Martenyi Steve Martinot Yvette McShan Denise Mewbourne Idell Moore Aaliyah Muhammad Danny Murillo Michael Muscadine Misty Rojo Jared Rudolph Tahtanerriah Sessoms-Howell Hannibal Shakur Decarla Smith Sundiata Tate Karen Vanpelt Rodrigo Vazquez Martin Vela-Sanchez Will Walker Deirdre Wilson Bonita Wright
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