Powell Supports Affirmative Action

Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday that he disagrees with President Bush's position on an affirmative action case before the U.S. Supreme Court, as the White House called for more money for historically black colleges.

Powell, one of two black members of Bush's Cabinet, said he supports methods the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor uses to bolster minority enrollments in its undergraduate and law school programs. The policies offer points to minority applicants and set goals for minority admissions.

"Whereas I have expressed my support for the policies used by the University of Michigan, the president, in looking at it, came to the conclusion that it was constitutionally flawed, based on the legal advice he received," Powell said on the CBS program "Face the Nation."

It was a rare public acknowledgment of disagreement with the president.

President Bush criticized Wednesday an affirmative action program under review by the Supreme Court, calling the practices in question "divisive, unfair and impossible to square with the Constitution."

The court's ruling in the pending UM case likely will be its most definitive decision on affirmative action and will ripple through college admissions offices nationwide.

National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said she backs Bush's decision to step into the case and to argue that UM's methods were unconstitutional.

She said on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday that there are "problems" with the university's selection policies, citing the points system.

But she also said race can be a factor in the selection process for colleges and universities.The brief the Bush administration filed with the Supreme Court was silent on the issue of whether race should be a factor under some circumstances.

"It is important to take race into consideration, if you must, if race-neutral means do not work," she said.

In a speech at the Republican National Convention in 2000, Powell sharply criticized GOP attacks on affirmative action.

"We must understand the cynicism that exists in the black community," he said.

"The kind of cynicism that is created when, for example, some in our party miss no opportunity to roundly and loudly condemn affirmative action that helped a few thousand black kids get an education, but you hardly heard a whimper from them over affirmative action for lobbyists who load our federal tax codes with preferences for special interests."

Education Secretary Rod Paige is the other black member of Bush's Cabinet. Paige firmly agrees with Bush's stance a spokesman said Sunday.

In an unusual announcement Sunday night, the White House said Bush's budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year would increase funding by 5 percent for grants to historically black colleges, universities, graduate programs and Hispanic education institutions.

The money affects three programs:

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