PRESIDENT NAMES PAUL STEVEN MILLER AS A COMMISSIONER OF EEOC

WASHINGTON - President Clinton today announced his intent to nominate Paul Steven Miller to serve as a Commissioner of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for a five-year term expiring in 2004.

Mr. Miller has served on the Commission since October 1994. As a member of the Commission, he participates with the other four Commissioners on all matters which come before the Commission including the development and approval of EEOC enforcement policies, authorization of litigation, issuance of Commissioners' charges of discrimination, and performance of such functions as may be authorized by law, regulation, or order.

As co-chair of EEOC's Task Force on Alternative Dispute Resolution, Mr. Miller was instrumental in helping to develop an agency-wide mediation policy and program for the Commission. He also chaired an EEOC task force which evaluated and proposed changes to the agency's litigation program to enhance its effectiveness. Mr. Miller also currently serves on the Presidential Task Force on Employment of Adults with Disabilities and on the Executive Committee of the President's Committee for Employment of People with Disabilities.

Prior to his appointment at EEOC, Mr. Miller served as the Deputy Director of the United States Office of Consumer Affairs and the White House liaison to the disability community. Earlier, he served as the Director of Litigation for the Western Law Center for Disability Rights, a non-profit legal services center specializing in disability rights issues. At the Western Law Center for Disability Rights, Mr. Miller litigated all types of disability rights cases, including employment, education, transportation, and access discrimination.

Mr. Miller was Adjunct Professor of Law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, a visiting Professor of Law at the University of California at Los Angeles, and Parson Visiting Scholar at the University of Sydney, Faculty of Law. In addition, he has addressed the British Houses of Parliament on the Americans with Disabilities Act and disability rights, and was a member of an American delegation to Japan on disability rights. Recently, Mr. Miller was honored to be selected as a 1998-99 Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar.

Born and raised in New York, Mr. Miller is a cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and received his Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School. At Harvard, Mr. Miller was a member of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. He has written numerous articles on the civil rights of people with disabilities.

The EEOC enforces Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin; the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, which protects workers 40 and older; the Equal Pay Act; the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities in the private sector and state and local governments; prohibitions against discrimination affecting persons with disabilities in the federal government; and sections of the Civil Rights Act of 1991. Further information about the Commission is available on the agency's web site (www.eeoc.gov).