Census in the News

Census Measures Head to Full House Thursday, 18 March 1999 W A S H I N G T O N (AP)

LOCAL OFFICIALS would get to review and challenge census figures under a Republican bill headed to the full House under threat of a presidential veto. Republicans argue that the bill and six other census measures that were approved by the House Government Reform Committee on Wednesday would help to reduce the inaccuracies that plagued the 1990 census. That count, which missed 8.4 million people and counted 4.4 million people twice, was the first to be less accurate than the one before it.

But Democrats insisted that the proposals will just cause delays. Commerce Secretary William Daley, whose department oversees the count, also said this week that three of the bills actually "would reduce the accuracy and seriously disrupt the schedule of Census 2000. If this legislation were presented to the president, I would recommend that he veto it," Daley wrote in a letter Tuesday to Rep. Henry Waxman of California, the committee's senior Democrat.

The bill, which advanced on a 23-21 vote, would let local officials review and challenge the census figures before they are finalized. A similar program was dropped after the 1990 count and the Census Bureau says the current plan already relies on input from local officials before the census begins on April 1, 2000. "A few thousand people might not make a difference in Washington but they make a huge difference in smaller local communities," said Rep. Dan Miller, R-Fla., the bill's sponsor and chairman of the committee's census panel.

Census officials had planned to use a scientific method known as "statistical sampling" to improve next year's count but Republicans objected. The census figure is calculated every 10 years and is used to redistribute the 435 seats in the House and dole out federal aid. Republicans insisted on the "enumeration" outlined in the Constitution and have suggested that a number produced by sampling could be manipulated to shift House seats and federal aid to Democratic-leaning areas. Democrats argue that sampling would produce a more accurate count. Republicans went to court and the Supreme Court ruled in January that sampling is unconstitutional for the purpose of redistributing House seats. But the high court said the law requires it for other purposes, such as giving out financial aid.

Kenneth Prewitt, the Census Bureau director, subsequently announced the census would use two counts. One will be based on the traditional method of door-to-door counting and be used to determine how many House seats each state gets; the other will use sampling to find people missed during the first count and produce what officials say will be a more accurate census. The process involves mailing questionnaires to some 100 million households and then sending workers to find those who fail to respond. Republicans also object to the two-track plan, which Miller described as "an absolute disaster. It's terrible public policy."

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., a sampling advocate, said Republican attempts to "micromanage" the census would cause breakdowns. "The professionals at the Census Bureau cannot conduct the best census possible if Congress is in their way," she said. Two other census bills approved by the committee but facing a veto would require census forms to be printed in 34 languages and mandate a second mailing of census forms. The remaining bills the committee passed would allow welfare recipients to work as temporary census employees without losing benefits; provide $26 million in grants to municipalities and tribal governments to promote the census; authorize $300 million next year for Census Bureau advertising; and expand a program for promoting the census in the schools. The bills are HR 472; HR 683; HR 928; HR 929; HR 1009; HR 1010; and HR 1058.

Bob Lovell

Cardinal Statistical Consultants

6039 Harkson Drive

East Lansing, MI 48824-1027

517 351-1577

BobLovell@Home.Com