[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 76 (Thursday, June 5, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H3552]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        THE CENSUS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH HELPING FLOOD VICTIMS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Pease). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentlewoman from Texas [Ms. Jackson-Lee] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I think it is very important 
to bring some light and some sense to the actions of this House just a 
few minutes ago. Unfortunately, I think that there was more of an 
eagerness to play politics as opposed to responding to a simple 
question that my 11-year-old son, Jason Lee, raised with me last 
evening, and that was a concern for those individuals in South Dakota 
and other parts who suffered a lot this spring, Americans who we have a 
great concern for and have really attempted for the past couple of 
weeks to effectively and through the right way provide funding for 
their needs. Unfortunately, a political game was played tonight, and in 
this emergency supplemental appropriations we did not do the right 
thing. We did not do the right thing because we did not get to the 
bottom line, and that is to provide the support needed for those in the 
military who needed training to be able to provide assistance to these 
communities that have suffered from this terrible flooding and fires. 
We did not do the right thing by providing the moneys for community 
development funds for rebuilding of their housing.
  Mr. Speaker, what we actually did was play politics. We proceeded to 
cut the moneys less than what was already included in the budget. We 
proceeded to cut discretionary funding and defense funding, although 
there are some who think that that money was included.
  We also tried to do damage to a very important aspect of the American 
psychic and the American responsibility, and that is to count its 
citizens.
  We did tonight something that had nothing to do with helping the 
citizens in South Dakota and other places that were negatively 
impacted. We put a straightjacket on the census. We declared Americans 
uncountable. We said that they are not important to find out who lives 
in the rural communities and urban centers. In an emergency 
appropriations bill we put in a straightjacket on taking the census for 
the year 2000.
  I would argue does that make any sense? It certainly does not. Apples 
and oranges; somebody said mangoes and papayas.
  What we did was to deny to American cities and rural communities the 
right to get their fair share of the tax dollars by denying the 
procedure of sampling and taking the census. Do you realize that we 
counted some 6 million people twice in the last census in 1990 and did 
not count 10 million citizens? It does not make sense when we began to 
distribute funds that we would find a circumstance where this Congress 
will straightjacket a function that is so very important to this 
Nation. In fact, the Constitution said the actual enumeration shall be 
made within 3 years after the first meeting of the Congress of the 
United States, with every subsequent term of 10 years.
  Mr. Speaker, the census is written into the Constitution, and yet 
playing politics instead of voting and putting forth the response to 
those citizens in the West who need our help, we now have intermingled 
and strangled this emergency supplemental appropriations bill so that 
the President will veto it because what it says is that we are not 
going to count our citizens and distribute our tax dollars fairly.
  I almost wish we could go back to the drawing board and answer the 
question of my son, age 11: Why can we not simply just give them the 
money and give them the money fairly and straightly to deal with their 
problems and stop the politics?
  I hope that we will be able to clear the air, if you will, to take 
this terrible language out of this supplemental appropriations bill so 
that we do not stranglehold the counting of citizens and we be able to 
move forward in the year 2000 and use a sampling that gets every one of 
our citizens. No matter where they are, whether they are homeless or 
not, they deserve to be counted so that we in America can distribute 
funds for education, the environment, Medicare and Medicaid, and not 
use your moneys frivolously, so that States who need more money because 
there are more people can fairly receive those funds instead of looking 
into smoke and mirrors and trying to decide who is in our State and who 
is in our country.
  Every child, every senior citizen, every working man and woman, every 
person in this country deserves to be counted in the census, and yet on 
this day of June 5, 1997, instead of giving money to the people who 
need it, we are fooling around and hiding the ball in the census in the 
year 2000.
  Someone said it does not seem to match two things: census and money 
for the folks who need it. You are right, it does not. Let us do the 
right thing and make sure that we pass a appropriations bill that 
serves those folk in South Dakota and other places who just simply ask 
to be treated like Americans.

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