[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 24 (Tuesday, March 10, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H933]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PLANNING THE 2000 CENSUS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Maloney) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, earlier today one of my 
colleagues came to the floor of the House and complained about the 
Census Bureau and the Department of Commerce not providing information 
about the 2000 Census.
  I am here to put the facts of the matter before the Members of the 
House so that they can make up their own minds about the openness of 
the planning for the 2000 Census.
  First, let me remind my colleagues that the process of planning the 
2000 Census has been the most open planning process of any census in 
history. The only thing that is closed in this process is the minds of 
those who are opposed to sampling.
  First, a few of the facts. As I have pointed out before, the planning 
for the 2000 Census has involved an Advisory Committee of over 50 
organizations, including House and Senate members who sit on the 
authorizing and appropriations committees and subcommittees.
  In the 102nd and 103rd Congresses, there were several hearings on the 
2000 Census. Unfortunately, there have been very few since then. The 
Census Bureau Director and the Secretary of Commerce have held dozens 
of town hall meetings to involve the public in the planning of the 2000 
Census. There have been no secrets in the past about planning the 
census and there are no secrets today.
  Last week, there was much ado about the plans for a nonsampling 
census and some Members have complained because one has not been 
produced. Mr. Speaker, there is a plan for the 2000 Census and it is a 
good one. Here it is: The Congress has asked for yet a second plan to 
be developed and that is being done. But there was no staff at the 
Census Bureau to develop a second plan for a census when that request 
was made. Every available staff member of the Census Bureau was hard at 
work trying to get the 2000 dress rehearsal under way, or working on 
the Economic Census, or working on one of the many current population 
programs the Census Bureau is responsible for. To develop a second plan 
for the 2000 Census means that they have to hire new staff. That takes 
time.
  Once that staff has been hired, they have to be trained before they 
can be turned loose to design a census. If Members think that plan 
should be ready today, they either badly misunderstand the complexity 
of the task, or do not care about the quality of the product. I for 
one, want to make sure that the next census is the best possible. I 
fear that some of my colleagues will settle for a census that leaves 
out millions of Americans, as long as it suits their own political 
purposes.
  Finally, Mr. Speaker, I would like to suggest that there is 
inappropriate and appropriate oversight. The opponents of sampling have 
repeatedly claimed that the use of sampling left the census open to 
political manipulation by the political officials at the Commerce 
Department. Now, it is my understanding that the Census Subcommittee 
staff has requested to interrogate the staff at the Census Bureau doing 
some of the most sensitive statistical work, before that work is 
completed.
  Why I ask? The Census Bureau offered to give the subcommittee staff 
full access to any documents or individuals once the research was 
completed. Why is the subcommittee insisting that they must have access 
during the research process?
  Congressional staff has no more reason to interfere with this 
statistical process than do officials at the Department of Commerce. If 
the political officials at Commerce asked for the kind of access 
requested by the subcommittee's staff, they would be turned down. That 
is as it should be. The subcommittee staff needs to learn the 
difference between oversight and interference.
  The Census Bureau is an agency of impeccable integrity. I, for one, 
stand here ready to defend their integrity against any who attack it, 
be they Congresspersons, Congressional staff, or officials in the 
administration. The subcommittee staff are not being stonewalled, they 
are being told that there should be no political interference with the 
statistics of the census. That is correct, and I will defend it to the 
end.

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