[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 30 (Thursday, March 4, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H1109-H1112]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
RECOGNIZING THE IMPORTANCE OF THE CENSUS AND NATIVE AMERICAN
PARTICIPATION
Mr. BACA. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the
resolution (H. Res. 1086) recognizing the importance and significance
of the 2010 Census and encouraging each community within the Indian
Country to name an elder to be the first member of that community to
answer the 2010 Census.
The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
The text of the resolution is as follows:
H. Res. 1086
Recognizing the importance and significance of the 2010
Census and encouraging each community within the Indian
Country to name an elder to be the first member of that
community to answer the 2010 Census.
Whereas the decennial census is a responsibility of the
Federal Government, mandated by article I, section 2 of the
Constitution;
Whereas, in the 2000 Census, 4.3 million people, or 1.5
percent of the total United States population, stated that
they were American Indian or Alaska Native;
Whereas, in the 2000 Census, 2.4 million people, or 1
percent of the United States population, stated that they
were solely American Indian or Alaska Native;
Whereas Native Americans are the descendants of the
aboriginal, indigenous, native people who were the original
inhabitants of and who governed the lands that now constitute
the United States;
Whereas the 2010 Census data is strictly confidential and
Federal law prevents the information from being shared with
any entity;
Whereas the 2010 Census is quick, safe, and easy to
complete;
Whereas the census is a source of data on a number of
issues of national importance, such as school attendance,
educational attainment, and employment;
Whereas areas are underserved by the Federal Government if
significant portions of the population, especially those in
low-income and minority neighborhoods, fail to participate in
the census;
Whereas full participation in the census is necessary to
ensure an accurate depiction of the population of the United
States;
Whereas, April 1, 2010, is the date for the 2010 Census;
Whereas the San Manuel Band Serrano Mission Indians in
California propose to name an elder to be the first member of
that community to answer the 2010 Census;
Whereas it is hoped that the naming of an elder to be the
first member of that community to answer the 2010 Census will
encourage other members of that community to answer the 2010
Census;
Whereas it is hoped that each other community within the
Indian Country will name an elder to be the first member of
their community to answer the 2010 Census;
Whereas elders are looked upon as the trusted ones in the
tribe who will have the most influence in carrying the
message of how important an accurate 2010 Census count is;
and
Whereas elder participation in the 2010 Census count will
encourage others to participate in the 2010 Census: Now,
therefore, be it;
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) recognizes the importance and significance of the 2010
census and encourages full participation in this critical
process; and
(2) encourages each community within the Indian Country to
name an elder to be the first member of that community to
answer the 2010 Census.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
California (Mr. Baca) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Bilbray)
each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California (Mr. Baca).
General Leave
Mr. BACA. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks
on this legislation and to insert extraneous materials thereon.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from California?
There was no objection.
Mr. BACA. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Today I rise in strong support of House Resolution 1086, a resolution
that recognizes the importance and significance of the 2010 census and
encourages each community within Indian Country to name an elder to be
the first member of that community to answer the 2010 census.
I would like to thank the majority leader, Steny Hoyer; Chairman Ed
Towns; and Ranking Member Darrell Issa for their support of this
resolution that was introduced on February 22, 2010. I also want to
recognize all committee staff and my personal staff for their hard work
on this. I also would like to take the time to thank my colleagues in
the House of Representatives for their bipartisan support, because it
is a bipartisan bill that is good for all of us.
This resolution serves to raise the awareness of the importance of
the 2010 census count and urges Indian Country to name an elder to be
the first person to complete the 2010 census from each tribe. That
shows respect and dignity for that elder. An accurate census count is
very important because the data gathered will determine the allocations
and the distributions of millions of dollars to State, local, and
tribal governments.
Census data can help tribal leaders understand what their community
needs are. Many tribal communities use census information to attract
new businesses and plan for growth in the future. In fact, many tribes
and tribal organizations use census data to plan
[[Page H1110]]
new facilities and programs for their communities and making their
quality of life a lot better.
The 2010 census will be used as a future basis for the 1,400 funding
programs under the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance; 245 of these
programs use census data for distribution of funds through grants,
loans, direct payments, and government grant payments. An accurate
count is essential to everyone, especially in Indian Country.
In the year 2000 census, 4.3 million people, or 1.5 percent of the
total United States population, stated that they were American Indians
or Alaska Natives. Census data will help shape the future of our youth
and sends a proud message to those individuals who can be identified.
In 2007, the American Community Survey reported that 40 percent of
American Indian and Alaska Native population was under the age of 25.
And in these tough economic times, Indian Country needs an accurate
census count more than ever. That is why I am proud to work with the
tribe from my area in California, along with Congressman Jerry Lewis,
that has the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, led by my good friend
Chairman James Ramos.
Next week, San Manuel Chairman Ramos will name Pauline Murrillo to be
the first elder to complete the 2010 census form to be counted in their
tribe. This is a short form with 10 questions. This is what it looks
like. What San Manuel is doing is creative and innovative. Elders are
looked upon as trusted leaders in most Native American communities.
They are in the best position to help carry the message of the
importance of an accurate 2010 census count. And also to bring pride
and respect within each of the tribes.
By law, the Census Bureau cannot share respondents' answers with
anyone, including tribal housing authorities, other Federal agencies,
or law enforcement entities. However, there is still mistrust in the
census in many tribes. The census needs our help, and this resolution
drives home the message that we need to encourage tribal elders as
partners in this challenge. With only 10 questions in the 2010 census
questionnaire, it is one of the shortest questionnaires in history and
it takes 10 minutes to complete for the average household.
The majority of households will receive the form by mail starting on
March 15. However, special procedures will be used on many Indian
reservations and in Alaska Native villages where homes do not have
city-style addresses with a number and street name. In these areas,
members of the community working with the census will visit homes to
help fill out the form and take an accurate count. Distrust in the
census will hurt the count especially, so these special procedures are
arranged for the very hard-to-count tribal areas. That is why the U.S.
Census created a special tool kit to help deliver the message and
complete an accurate count in Indian Country. With the help of tribal
elders, the 2010 census can be a great success.
I encourage all Members to go back to their districts and work with
the tribes in their areas, as I have, to ensure an accurate count for
every community. I urge my colleagues to support greater census
awareness in Indian Country and vote in favor of H. Res. 1086.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. BILBRAY. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Madam Speaker, the Constitution of the United States mandates on the
Federal Government the responsibility of holding a census every decade.
It is an essential part of our constitutional obligation, and actually
a building block for our representative form of government. It also has
evolved into a process to be able to assess how Federal funds and
programs should be distributed.
The integrity of the census is so important that over the decades
methods have been proposed how to improve and to secure the census
numbers. Today we are actually talking about one aspect of the effort
to improve the validity of these numbers and the integrity of the
numbers, and that is to do an outreach to the communities of the Native
Alaskans and American Indians. These are communities that tend to be
more isolated than the general population and tend to be more
suspicious of any government action, especially the Federal Government.
And, frankly, the way the Federal Government has treated these two
groups historically, I think we all say that a lot of the skepticism of
the American Indian and Native Alaskans is well founded.
But this program is well based in a proposal to use the traditional
respect for elders, the high regard and status of elders in the
American Indian and Alaskan Native community really as a building block
to build the understanding that this process is not just important to
the Federal Government, it is not just important to the general
population, but it is essential to those individuals who reside on
Indian reservations and in Alaska.
This proposal is actually a great way to be able to bring this
message that the census is for you, too, even if you are on a
reservation. I think it is a very good way of doing it.
I have to say there are many things that the Federal Government does
where we mean well, but we don't take the time to understand the
individuals that we are trying to serve. We don't take the time or make
the effort to understand that the Federal Government too often asks for
one size fits all as somehow the perfect answer. This program
customizes an approach to reflect those traditional customs and the
heritage of our Native American and Native Alaskan populations.
I think that the integrity of the census is something that we don't
talk enough about except when we have scandals and problems of groups
and people being involved with it that basically are questionable at
the time and pull a pale over the entire census process. This process
is one I think where we will be able to look back and say there was a
bipartisan effort not to try to manipulate the numbers or the process,
but to allow the numbers to be true and well founded. I strongly
support this concept.
Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman
from Georgia (Mr. Broun).
Mr. BROUN of Georgia. I thank Mr. Bilbray for yielding.
Madam Speaker, the census is one of the few, one of the very few
truly constitutional functions that we are engaged in here in Congress.
In fact, most of what Congress does today is unconstitutional according
to the original intent. I am an original intent constitutionalist. I
believe the Federal Government should only be doing 18 things that
Article I, section 8 gives us the authority to do, but the census is
certainly one of those. National defense, national security, taking
care of our veterans and taking care of our folks in the armed services
is, under the original intent of the Constitution, the major function
of the Federal Government. And I am a very strong believer in that. I
am a very strong believer in this government doing only those things
that Article I, section 8 gives us the authority to do, and certainly
taking the census is one of those.
Today we will be taking up a rule in the next series of votes, from
what I understand, which is going to be a rule on a jobs bill. Well,
jobs and the census certainly have a great correlation because the
Census Bureau will be looking at who is unemployed in this country. In
fact, that is what they do. Part of their job in the Census Bureau is
to try to find out all of the demographic information. A lot of the
things that the Census Bureau does, questions that they ask are none of
the Census Bureau's or the Federal Government's business, frankly, but
certainly I encourage people to fill out the census for the information
that is actually required under the Constitution, and no more.
But, Madam Speaker, jobs are certainly important, and counting the
jobless rate in this country is certainly an important function of
knowing where we are. The States do this and the Federal Government
takes all of that jobless information, and we are going to get a report
just tomorrow about the new jobless rates.
Madam Speaker, just last week I was in one of my counties in Georgia
in the 10th Congressional District and was talking to the county
commission chairman, and in that discussion he was telling me 1 year
ago the jobless rate in his county was over 14 percent.
[[Page H1111]]
I think it was 14.7, if I remember correctly. He said now the jobless
rate in their county is down to a little over 10 percent. I said,
That's great.
{time} 1030
Is this because of the stimulus bill that we passed? Is this because
new jobs were created in your county? And he said, No, we've had no new
jobs in our county, none, absolutely zero. The reason that the
unemployment rate is down in our county is because people have just
stopped looking for jobs. They're discouraged. They're greatly
discouraged. I think this is true all over this country. I think the
fall in our jobless rate that we've seen recently, down from above 10
to just slightly below 10, is because people have gotten discouraged
and they have just stopped looking.
We just passed an extender of unemployment benefits by voice vote.
I'm not really happy that we've passed it by voice vote, but we did
just last week. And, Madam Speaker, we are going to be taking up this
jobs bill that we haven't even seen the text of, we have not even seen
the bill. It is going to be brought to the floor of this House just
like the stimulus bill was, without even having the opportunity to read
these plans.
Madam Speaker, I believe that ``jobs'' by this new bill, from
everything I can tell, should be an acronym. JOBS should be ``just one
big slush fund,'' an acronym for ``just one big slush fund.''
Madam Speaker, I introduced my own JOBS Act. My JOBS Act is an
acronym for ``jump-start our business sector.'' That's what we need to
be doing; we need to be jump-starting our business sector by getting
the tax burden and the regulatory burden off small business. Madam
Speaker, small business is the economic engine that pulls along the
train of prosperity in America, the small business. We are killing
small business through the regulatory burden and the tax burden.
We're going to be taking up a health care bill very soon--we don't
know when yet--ObamaCare. ObamaCare, Madam Speaker, is going to kill
jobs in America. Let me say that again: ObamaCare is going to kill jobs
in America. In fact, the bill that the House voted on, the President's
own senior economic adviser said it will kill 5.5 million jobs, put 5.5
million Americans out of work if the House bill is put into law. The
Senate bill, I haven't seen the data on it, but I'm sure those data are
just the same. I'm not sure if it's 5.5 million or 5 million, but the
recent proposal by the Obama administration is going to kill jobs, and
creating more and more government spending is just creating more
government jobs.
Madam Speaker, the American people need to decide, are we going to go
down one route of socialism, total government control, total government
takeover of everything in human endeavor, including health care, or are
we going to go down the road of liberty and freedom? And I say liberty
and freedom because I consider them to be a little different.
Madam Speaker, let me define liberty for you. This is my definition.
I don't think you will find it in the dictionary, but I think it's very
appropriate. Liberty is freedom bridled by morality. Liberty is freedom
bridled by morality. America needs to decide, are we going to be a free
people or are we going to be controlled by the Federal Government? Are
doctors and patients going to make their health care decisions, or will
it be some government bureaucrat in Washington?
Just yesterday, the President had a press conference where he said he
wanted doctors and patients to make that decision, but his proposal
will not do that. His proposal will make a government bureaucrat here
in Washington, D.C. tell doctors and patients what kind of care they
can get.
Madam Speaker, I am a medical doctor; I'm a family practitioner. I
have fought for my patients for years as part of my practice, being
concerned about their economic well-being. That's what family doctors
do. I try to find the best quality care at the lowest price for my
patients. That is an integral part of family medicine. But what we are
heading towards with this government takeover of health care is going
to destroy family medicine and destroy that basic premise of what we do
as family doctors.
This jobs bill is going to be nothing more than one big slush fund.
``Jobs'' by the new bills that we've seen, at least in the Senate
bill--and I think we're going to have something that is very close to
that once we see the legislative language--is not going to be anything
but one big slush fund, this political payback, and it's going to
create jobs in the Federal Government.
Now, jobs have been created, certainly, by the failed stimulus
package we passed a little over 1 year ago, but let's look back 1 year
later at some of the spending low lights of that failed stimulus bill:
$67,726 was used by a casino outside Green Bay, Wisconsin. They used a
Federal grant to send their employees to learn how to handle
confrontations with their customers. This is not constitutional. But
once they went there, it was clear to the instructors of this seminar
that the casino staff already knew how to handle confrontations with
their customers.
We've allocated, in Massachusetts, $4 million in Federal stimulus
dollars to build a 2.66-mile bike trail that connected the Manhan Bike
Trail to the North Hampton and Norwottuck Trails. This would give those
folks riding down that bike trail greater access to Taco Bell. I'm sure
Taco Bell is very appreciative of the taxpayers' largess.
Millions of dollars were sent to Democratic operatives. Two firms run
by Mark Penn, current Secretary of State Clinton's former Presidential
campaign pollster, were awarded $5.9 million in taxpayer funds from the
stimulus bills. I could go on and on and on.
We built bike racks in Georgetown with stimulus dollars that were put
in place in neighborhoods where the average house value here in
Georgetown was over $1 million. I mean, come on. The American public
needs to stand up and say ``no'' to this outrageous takeover of their
liberty and their freedom.
Madam Speaker, a CEO of a steel-making corporation recently said,
Companies large and small are saying, I'm not going to do anything
until these things, health care and climate legislation, go away or are
resolved. That is what's happening, Madam Speaker, in this country.
Small businesses, and large, are scared. The American public is
frightened.
When I did my very first town hall meeting last August in Evans,
Georgia, talking about the Pelosi health care bill, I thanked the
people for coming and expressing their concern about health care. When
I did, after discussing the bill, I thanked the people for coming and
showing their concern about health care. The second gentleman that got
up in the question and answer period said, Dr. Broun, I would like to
disagree with you about something. I said, Sure, what is it? And he
said, I want to disagree with you because I'm not concerned about
health care; I'm scared and I'm angry. And a scared and angry American
public is a power to be reckoned with. He got a tremendous round of
applause. I applauded him also. And he is exactly right.
The American people need to stand up and say ``no'' to ObamaCare.
Let's trash these bills that are on the floor for consideration now and
let's start all over again and find something that makes sense. Let's
have a jobs bill that makes sense and that really creates jobs.
The Republicans are accused by Democratic colleagues and by the
President of being a ``party of no.'' Well, we are the ``party of k-n-
o-w.'' We do know how to create a strong economy, and that's by getting
the tax burden and regulatory burden off the small businesses in
America and off the individuals, leaving dollars in their pockets so
that they can expand their business and create more jobs and where
consumers have more money so that they can expend it on goods and
services here in America.
We know how to solve the health care financing problem we have in
America where health care and drugs are too expensive. We can lower the
cost of health care, not raise it as the ObamaCare bills all do. We
know how to create jobs. We know how to get this economy back on track.
We know how to lower the cost of health care if our ideas are just
heard. But the leadership here in this House, the leadership in the
Senate and the administration
[[Page H1112]]
have turned a deaf ear towards commonsense, market-based solutions.
And I ask, Madam Speaker, for the American people to stand up and say
``no'' to socialism and say ``yes'' to freedom and liberty.
I hope the American people will contact their Congressman and their
Senators and say ``no'' to ObamaCare, ``no'' to this jobs bill, ``no''
to more socialism and more government control of their lives, and say
``yes'' to freedom and liberty.
Mr. BILBRAY. Madam Speaker, I would like to close by thanking my
colleague from California. I want to thank him for a lot of reasons,
but it was nice that you proposed a 2-page bill, not a 2,000-page bill.
It was nice that you gave us over a week to be able to review it rather
than a few hours. And it is darn nice to see that we can have a
bipartisan effort and get something passed in this Congress that
doesn't cost $1 trillion. So thank you very much for taking a
leadership role on this thing. Maybe we can get the leadership on both
sides to recognize that maybe this is the process we ought to follow
more often.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. BACA. First of all, I would like to thank the gentleman from San
Diego (Mr. Bilbray) for his support of this. I know that he has always
been supportive of Native Americans, not only now but in the past as
well; so I appreciate that.
I also appreciate the gentleman from Georgia and his comments. I
think he was supporting this legislation somewhere along the line as he
was talking about jobs.
I also believe that it's important, and I know that President Obama
has that as part of his top priority in creating jobs and dealing with
the jobs in this country because he knows very well that the
unemployment is now roughly around 10 percent, and he wants to make
sure that he gets it up.
We know that unemployment will affect the census. I share in that
sense that the gentleman from Georgia was supporting it because it's
very important that we do an accurate count and that we count everyone
because that will determine the amount of jobs that we have and the
kinds of jobs to be created in our areas.
As I stated before, Madam Speaker, I would like to thank Chairman
Towns, Ranking Member Issa, and of course I want to thank again Mr.
Bilbray for his hard work and support, as well as the staff and others
who have worked on this bill.
As we all know, an accurate count is vital to the importance of the
American tribal communities and every other community. In my community,
not too long ago we started a census count. We did it at Arrowhead
Medical Center. We went there, and we began to try to tell the people
in our communities the importance of having an accurate count, the
importance of making sure that we count each and every one, and that
everyone participates in it; and also clarifying the law, clarifying
the law that the information will not be used against any individual,
but every individual must be counted within our communities.
What does it mean to our States, our counties, our cities? What does
it mean to businesses in the area? It's important that we do an
accurate count because that's the only way that we can determine how
many dollars are going to come back into our communities. We won't know
unless we do an accurate count.
The State of California won't be able to determine their budget if
they don't do an accurate count. Based on the amount of dollars in that
immediate area, they can then determine how much money is going to be
coming back to the State of California, or any other State. Or a county
official in an area can determine, when they look at their budget and
try to determine what goes on, they can only do it if they have an
accurate count. And city officials within the area can only determine
what needs to go on in terms of, all right, What is my budget going to
look like? What kind of services do I need to provide at the local
level? How does it impact transportation? How does it impact education?
How does it impact public safety? How does it impact public health?
And then local businesses in the area: we know that you need a strong
marketing plan and you need to know where businesses want to relocate.
It happens through the census.
{time} 1045
So an accurate count is very important. If you're a businessperson
and you want to start a business in the area, it's important that you
have an accurate count because you know where you want to be located;
you know the demographics of the area; you know the income of the area.
If it's a doctor, then the doctor will know how many patients he is
going to have and how much profit he is going to make. It's not about
profit. It's about the service and quality of health care. I only made
that statement, but it's important because we'll be able to determine
that. So an accurate count in the area becomes very important. It also
tells us how to market the area. How do we market the immediate area in
terms of what goes on?
In Indian Country, it becomes very important to a lot of us when we
look at many of our tribes in our areas and at the undercount that has
been there. Many of our tribes and others have not been able to
determine the kind of services they need within the reservations. This
will determine the transportation, the housing in the area, the health
in the area, and the kind of educational facilities. Most of all, it
will be respect to an elder because this is about identifying the
elders within each of the tribes and allowing them to be counted. It's
important that we count each and every one of the individuals and that
we allow for the kind of respect that should be there, not only in this
census but in others. If we look back at 1990 and 2000, we did an
inaccurate count. There were many people who weren't counted.
I believe the census is making every effort in trying to reach out to
our communities by marketing, by hiring individuals, by working in the
communities, and by identifying those individuals. That kind of
partnership and collaboration becomes very important to all of us if we
want to make sure that we do an accurate count.
This bill is very important, not only to Native Americans now but in
the future, when a child can then look up to future generations and
say, It was my elder who was the first one to be counted, the true
Americans in this country, and they should be the ones who should be
counted first. This gives us an opportunity to approach them and to
make sure that they are counted.
Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. BACA. I yield.
Mr. BROUN of Georgia. I just wanted to answer your question.
Yes, I absolutely support this. Counting the census is a
constitutional duty. It's extremely important. Our Founding Fathers
knew how important it was to know who people were, where they were, et
cetera. So I do support the bill very strongly.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. BACA. I thank the gentleman from Georgia for his support.
Madam Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back
the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from California (Mr. Baca) that the House suspend the rules
and agree to the resolution, H. Res. 1086.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. BACA. Madam Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a
quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not
present.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be
postponed.
The point of no quorum is considered withdrawn.
____________________