[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 111 (Friday, August 7, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1569]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




DEPARTMENTS OF COMMERCE, JUSTICE, AND STATE, AND JUDICIARY, AND RELATED 
                   AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 1999

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. JERROLD NADLER

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, August 5, 1998

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 4276) making 
     appropriations for the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and 
     State, the Judiciary, and related agencies for the fiscal 
     year ending September 30, 1999, and for other purposes.


  Mr. NADLER. Mr. Chairman, I speak today in order to voice my 
disappointment with the current status of the census debate. The 
partisan politics that have been paralyzing the implementation of the 
census are an embarrassment, and ultimately detrimental to the public, 
the people for whom the Census is supposed to work.
  In 1990, there were 26 million errors in the census. About 8.8 
million people were missed, a population almost equal to Michigan's. 
Most of those missed were poor people and minorities. The 1990 census 
was long, expensive, labor intensive, and inaccurate. Despite the 
increase in the cost, this count was the first one in recent history to 
be less accurate than the preceding census. We should not be satisfied 
with a means of testing that misses millions of people.
  The Census Bureau has a comprehensive plan for 2000 that will produce 
the most accurate census in our history. The methods intended for the 
2000 census are the same ones the government uses to calculate the 
unemployment rate and the GNP. The method, statistical sampling, has 
thus already received government approval in other important arenas. 
There is no reason to believe that it would not be equally as effective 
for the Census.
  In 1990, the census cost $2.6 billion. In 2000, the census will cost 
$7.2 billion if similar methods are used. This number could be cut to 
$4 billion, nearly in half, if statistical sampling were used. Why use 
all the additional funds on a method that has proven itself faulty and 
insufficient?
  Mr. Chairman, no one listening to this is unaware that there has been 
a large effort on the side of the Majority to prevent statistical 
sampling from being used in the 2000 Census. One aspect of this effort 
is the current attempt to make only half of the census funds available 
for the time being. By denying full access to the census funds, members 
of this Congress are in effect paralyzing any sort of Census for 2000. 
Permitting only partial use of the monies allocated for the census is 
detrimental to whatever type of method is eventually used, statistical 
or otherwise. A census, of any sort, cannot be executed efficiently if 
all the funds are not available for the start up of the census now. It 
seems that many members of this Congress would prefer to have the 
census fail instead of having an accurate one. It is disgraceful that 
any Member would want to tamper with the accuracy of the census for 
their own political agenda. It is disgraceful that they would purposely 
ignore people of this country and compromise their fair representation 
by preventing an accurate census.
  An accurate census helps Americans in every community. Every year, 
census data determines $180 billion dollars in federal spending. Census 
information help direct where the money goes for better roads and 
transit systems, schools, senior citizen centers, health care 
facilities and programs for children like Head Start and school 
lunches. If the census isn't accurate, local communities will be 
cheated of their fair share.
  I urge my colleagues to stop the antics that are plaguing this 
debate, and realize that they are harming the census, any census, by 
continuing to halt full funding. I ask my colleagues to realize that 
only a Statistical Sampling Census will provide the accuracy needed and 
provide an accurate picture of our nation's population and communities.

                          ____________________