[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 45 (Wednesday, April 22, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H2217-H2218]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE CENSUS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Maloney) is recognized for 5 minutes.
The Armenian Genocide
Mrs. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I rise to put on the Record my
statement on the Armenian genocide on its 83rd anniversary. As we stand
here on the floor now, the Armenian National Committee is hosting a
meeting with Members of Congress to remember the genocide and to take
action to make sure that it becomes part of the history of the world
and is recognized.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to commend the
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) and the gentleman from Illinois
(Mr. Porter), who are cochairs of the Armenian Caucus, for all of their
hard work on this issue and other human rights issues.
Mr. Speaker, I want to talk about a very important point, and that is
getting a fair and accurate census, one that counts every American.
There has been a lot of rhetoric about the Census Monitoring Board
floating around. Once again, there has been little connection between
that rhetoric and reality. I hope to set the record straight by
discussing the facts of the situation and not the mythology the
opponents of a fair census are trying to create.
Mr. Speaker, my colleagues who oppose a fair and accurate census, who
repeatedly call for spending billions more to assure that the
inaccuracies of the past are repeated, have criticized the President
for appointing a couple of, and I use their quotes, ``political hit
men'' to the Census Monitoring Board set up in the 1998 appropriations
bill. These appointments, they claim, show that the President is really
interested in politics, not in science.
The facts argue that just the opposite is true. The President has put
forward a plan for the 2000 Census based on science, not politics. The
opponents of that plan know they cannot win a debate on the merits, so
they have tried to smear the President and the Census Bureau with
innuendo.
The President appointed politicians to the Census Monitoring Board
because, from the outset, it has been clear that the board was a
political entity. The President appointed politicians to counter the
politicians appointed by the Republicans. It is clear that, from the
beginning, the new leadership intended this board to be political.
Let us look at the facts. When the board first appeared in language
drafted by the Republican leadership during the negotiations over the
1998 budget, it had four Republican appointees and just two Democratic
appointees. That sounds rather partisan and slanted to me. At the same
time, they tried to give the board subpoena power, congressional
printing authority, and a host of other functions. In fact, they
designed the board to look very much like a House committee, where they
could control the rules of the game. In other words, they tried to
create a political entity.
We are fortunate that the President refused to accept such a
blatantly partisan board. Even after the President forced the
Republican leadership to accept a board that had four Republican
appointees and four Democratic appointees, the Republican leadership
wanted the board to operate with a quorum of four.
Mr. Speaker, I would like Members to stop and think about what that
means. A quorum of four would allow the four Republican appointees to
meet without including a single Democrat. Is that partisan? Does that
tell us what their agenda is? I think it does.
The Republican leadership at every turn has signaled that this
monitoring board is nothing but a political entity. The President has
responded to these signals in the only rational way possible. When the
Speaker of the House and the Majority Leader of the Senate appointed
board members with political rather than scientific credentials, the
President did likewise.
[[Page H2218]]
What is different is that the President has a strong record on the
science of this issue, and the Republican leadership does not. The
President called on the National Academy of Sciences for advice. The
Republican leadership has ridiculed the Academy as political because it
does not like their scientific judgment. The President continues to
seek the advice of experts through the National Academy of Sciences and
through advisory committees. The Republican leadership continues to
fret about what a fair and accurate census might do to their attempts
to manipulate the redistricting process.
Right now, the Census Monitoring Board is a political entity because
the Republican leadership made it that way. But it does not have to
continue in that vein. Let me put forward four principles that, if
adopted, could make the monitoring board a bipartisan operation.
First, all personnel hired to work for the monitoring board other
than the executive directors, have to be hired with the agreement of
both executive directors.
Second, all work done by board employees has to be approved by both
executive directors.
Third, any press release, publication, or statement attributed to the
board has to have the approval of both chairs before released.
Fourth, any funds expended by the board have to be approved by the
two chairs.
If the Republican appointees on the Board will agree to these four
principles, the board can proceed in a bipartisan manner.
If they refuse to agree with these principles, it is a clear
indication that their agenda is to conduct partisan political
activities and try to use the monitoring board to legitimize their
partisan agenda.
I ask the Chairman of the Census Subcommittee to join me in calling
for the Census Monitoring Board to accept these four principles.
His willingness to join me in supporting these principles will also
send a signal that he too is interested in fact and not fiction.
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