This report summarizes a 1983 study, following previous research by the United States Commission on Civil Rights. The study examined several aspects of civil rights programs within federal agencies in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska: distribution of authority and resources, accomplishments in 1980, and plans for 1983. Information was obtained from regional officials or, for agencies that had no regional civil rights unit, from their national civil rights units. Thirteen descriptive sections cover the Environmental Protection Agency; the Department of Education; the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; the Federal Home Loan Bank Board; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Departments of Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Labor, and Transportation; the Small Business Administration; the Department of Energy; the Office of Revenue Sharing; and the Federal Executive Board. The report concludes that, although enforcement has not greatly decayed since 1980, it is very poor in most of these agencies. Specific findings are listed with recommendations to review regional compliance efforts nationwide, to strengthen civil rights programs in individual agencies, and to review the efforts of several agencies that supplied no information for this study. (MCG)