[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 83 (Tuesday, June 23, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H5040]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    RACIAL OVERTONES TO CENSUS COUNT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Sanchez) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, there they go again. The Republican 
leadership of the House fails to match their rhetoric in favor of a 
color-blind America with deeds.
  Last year, Members of this House criticized the investigation of the 
Dornan election contest because it unfairly questioned the loyalty and 
the legality of Hispanic and Asian American voters. The process the 
House employed produced race-based outcomes.
  The Republican response was to ignore these facts and to attack their 
critics for ``inciting racism'' and ``playing the race card.'' 
Republican amendments this year to campaign finance reform would 
discriminate against people of color and would ban the bilingual 
ballot. Yet Republican candidates mail campaign brochures in Spanish 
and other languages. And when we point out the hypocrisy, they will 
attack us once again for ``playing the race card.''
  Yesterday, I was offended to learn of remarks made by the senior 
Republican staff member working on the new census as reported by the 
respected journalist David Broder. This staff member, who works for 
this House, unmistakably revealed that race is a factor in the 
Republican effort to block an accurate and less expensive census.
  As Broder reported, ``. . . it is about raw political power, as I was 
reminded on a recent visit to the GOP command post on Capitol Hill.''
  When two of my colleagues wrote to the gentleman from Florida 
(Chairman Miller) yesterday to express their concern, he fired back a 
response within hours accusing them of ``injecting racial politics into 
the debate.'' Once again, when racial bias, prejudice, and base-based 
outcomes are exposed, the Republican response is to attack the 
messenger for ``playing the race card.''
  Mr. Speaker, we who oppose government sanctioned racism will not be 
silenced by these attacks. We will stand in this well as long as it 
takes to shed light and bring honest debate about the merits of an 
accurate census.
  Race was injected into this process not by those who object to 
prejudice. Race became an issue by those who have turned this process 
into a fight over raw political power.
  It was the Republican leader who launched this agenda when he said 
that meeting our constitutional obligation to provide an accurate 
census of all Americans was ``a dagger aimed at the heart of the 
Republican majority.''
  Mr. Speaker, if truth is a dagger, if accuracy is aimed at the heart 
of the Republican majority, then the only thing the leadership of this 
House should fear is judgment.

                          ____________________