[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 135 (Thursday, October 1, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S11278]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS

  The following petitions and memorials were laid before the Senate and 
were referred or ordered to lie on the table as indicated:

       POM-548. A petition from a citizen of the State of Georgia 
     relative to national efforts to combat lung cancer; to the 
     Committee on Labor and Human Resources.
       POM-549. A resolution adopted by the Legislature of the 
     State of Colorado; to the Committee on Governmental Affairs.

                       Senate Resolution 98S-004

       Whereas, Article I, section 2, clause 3 of the U.S. 
     Constitution requires an ``actual enumeration'' of the 
     population every ten years and entrusts Congress with 
     overseeing all aspects of each decennial census; and
       Whereas, The purpose of the enumeration, as set forth in 
     the Constitution, is to apportion the seats in the federal 
     House of Representatives among the several states; and
       Whereas, An accurate decennial census is necessary to 
     apportion such seats and to enable states to comply with 
     federal and state constitutional requirements of equal 
     population in legislative districts; and
       Whereas, The U.S. Constitution, in order to ensure an 
     accurate count and to minimize the potential for political 
     manipulation, mandates an ``actual enumeration'' of the 
     population, which requires a physical headcount and prohibits 
     statistical guessing or estimates of the population; and
       Whereas, Federal law, consistent with this constitutional 
     mandate, expressly prohibits the use of statistical sampling 
     to enumerate the population, and the Federal District Court 
     for the District of Columbia so held in U.S. House of 
     Representatives v. U.S. Department of Commerce, et al., Case 
     No. 98-0456; and
       Whereas, Every reasonable and practical effort should be 
     made to obtain the fullest and most accurate count possible, 
     including appropriate funding for state and local census 
     outreach and education programs, as well as provision for 
     post-census review; and
       Whereas, The U.S. Census Bureau has proposed to use two 
     population-polling techniques in the 2000 decennial census, 
     known as ``sampling for nonresponse follow-up'' and the 
     ``Integrated Coverage Measurement''; now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the Senate of the Sixty-first General Assembly 
     of the State of Colorado:
       (1) That the U.S. Census Bureau is requested to conduct the 
     2000 census consistent with constitutional and statutory 
     mandates, which require a physical headcount of the 
     population and bar the use of statistical sampling to create 
     or adjust the count in any way;
       (2) That the Colorado State Senate opposes the use of 
     census number for redistricting that have been determined in 
     whole or in part by the use of sampling techniques or other 
     statistical methodologies that add or subtract persons from 
     the census counts based solely on statistical inference;
       (3) That the Colorado State Senate urges Congress, as the 
     branch of government charged with overseeing the decennial 
     census, to take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that 
     the 2000 census is conducted fairly and legally; be it 
     further
       Resolved, That a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to 
     the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, the 
     President of the U.S. Senate, the President of the United 
     States, each member of the congressional delegation from 
     Colorado, and James F. Holmes, Acting Director, U.S. Census 
     Bureau.

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