The current capabilities of Federal Agencies to measure the extent to which minorities receive the benefits of Federal domestic assistance programs were evaluated by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. The use and collection of racial and ethnic data; responsibility for racial and ethnic data collection and use; and the legal issues of authority, constitutional protection against the invasion of privacy, and State-Federal conflicts were evaluated. The Commission's findings were based on information gathered from six Federal Agencies which administer many of the largest domestic assistance programs and two Agencies with special statistical responsibilities: the Departments of Agriculture; Health, Education, and Welfare; Housing and Urban Development; Labor; Transportation; and the Veterans Administration; the Office of Management and Budget; and the Bureau of the Census. Also using additional information supplied by minority organizations, the Commission found that the scant data collected by Federal Agencies were insufficient for determining the degree Federal benefits are reaching minority groups on an equitable basis, thus making it impossible to determine whether program benefit distribution is free from discriminatory practices. This report also described the parameters for creating a data collection system necessary to measure the extent to which minorities receive domestic assistance benefits. (NQ)