[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 134 (Wednesday, October 1, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H8278]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          PERSONAL EXPLANATION

  Mrs. ROUKEMA. Madam Speaker, last evening I was unavoidably detained 
and arrived too late for the vote on the Mollohan-Shays amendment. I 
would like to have the Record note that had I been here to vote, I 
would have voted against rollcall vote 475 to H.R. 2267.
  (Mrs. ROUKEMA asked and was given permission to revise and extend her 
remarks.)
  Madam Speaker, we are bound by the Constitution to conduct a census 
every 10 years. Article 1, section 2 of the Constitution calls for an 
actual enumeration. The 14th amendment calls for the Representatives to 
be apportioned by counting the whole number of persons in each State. 
Any deviation from conducting the census under this constitutional 
mandate is a question for the Supreme Court to answer.
  This is what this bill will now do. It will bar the Census Bureau 
from using sampling until this vital question is answered. Any other 
course of action would not be prudent or constitutional. It is for this 
overriding reason that I would have opposed the Mollohan-Shays 
amendment.

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