[House Report 106-96]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]





106th Congress                                                   Report
  1st Session           HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES                 106-96

=======================================================================



 
                2000 CENSUS LANGUAGE BARRIER REMOVAL ACT

                                _______
                                

 April 19, 1999.--Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the 
              State of the Union and ordered to be printed

                                _______


    Mr. Burton of Indiana, from the Committee on Government Reform, 
                        submitted the following

                              R E P O R T

                             together with

                             Minority Views

                        [To accompany H.R. 929]

      [Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]

    The Committee on Government Reform, to whom was referred 
the bill (H.R. 929) to amend title 13, United States Code, to 
require that the questionnaire used in taking the 2000 
decennial census be made available in certain languages besides 
English, having considered the same, report favorably thereon 
without amendment and recommend that the bill do pass.

                                CONTENTS

                                                                   Page
   I. Summary of Legislation.......................................   2
  II. Background and the Need for Legislation......................   2
 III. Legislative Hearings and Committee Actions...................   3
  IV. Committee Hearings and Written Testimony.....................   3
   V. Explanation of the Bill......................................   3
  VI. Compliance with Rule XIII....................................   4
 VII. Budget Analysis and Projections..............................   4
VIII. Cost Estimate of the Congressional Budget Office.............   4
  IX. Specific Constitutional Authority for This Legislation.......   5
   X. Committee Recommendation.....................................   5
  XI. Congressional Accountability Act; Public Law 104-1...........   6
 XII. Unfunded Mandates Reform Act; Public Law 104-4, Section 423..   6
XIII. Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.) Section 5(b)..   6
 XIV. Changes in Existing Law......................................   7

                       I. Summary of Legislation

    H.R. 929 amends title 13, of the United States Code, to 
require the short form questionnaire that will be used in 
taking the 2000 Decennial Census be made available in certain 
languages, including Braille, aside from English. This bill 
also gives the Secretary of Commerce the authority to choose 
which method the additional forms will be made available to the 
public to best enhance response rates.

          II. Background Information and Need for Legislation

    H.R. 929 was introduced by Mr. Miller to address concerns 
that the Census Bureau will print census forms in only five 
languages other than English (Chinese, Korean, Spanish, 
Tagalog, and Vietnamese) in the 2000 Decennial Census. This 
legislation requires the Secretary to print the short form 
questionnaire in 33 languages other than English, including 
Braille. The United States is home to immigrants from nearly 
100 countries around the world, and providing the census 
questionnaires in a myriad of languages will better reflect the 
diversity of our country. This legislation also provides an 
added advantage in outreach to local ethnic communities who 
otherwise would not be inclined to fill out a census form in 
English. People would be more likely to correctly complete and 
return a census form in their native tongue if they feel 
comfortable and thoroughly understand the questions. Included 
in this outreach, there are an estimated 750,000 blind people 
across the country, of which over 20% read Braille. It is 
important that the Bureau issue an alternative version of the 
questionnaire in Braille to count these people.
    According to the Bureau, the current plan to print the 
questionnaires in five languages will reach 99 percent of the 
population in the United States. Meanwhile, the Bureau will not 
attempt to reach the remaining one percent of the population 
(2.7 million people).The Bureau plans to address the remainder 
of the population that speaks foreign languages through Telephone 
Questionnaire Assistance Centers and foreign language assistance 
booklets. This is insufficient outreach to a sector of the population 
that tends to be undercounted due to the lack of adequate 
communication. The result of adding 33 additional languages would be an 
effective increase in outreach to boost the response rate, and serve as 
a cost-effective measure. An increased mail response rate from returned 
questionnaires would offset follow-up costs in the field.
    To secure responses from the greatest number of households, 
this legislation gives the Secretary the discretion to decide 
how the forms should be made available to the public. An 
example of how the forms would be distributed throughout 
various communities may include a targeted mailing, or placing 
the forms at certain official Census Bureau locations (``Be 
Counted sites'') in areas where it is known that the languages 
are predominately spoken.
    The Congress is committed to achieving the most accurate 
census possible. This goal can be achieved through the highest 
level of outreach and communication possible, and it is 
necessary to employ the resources that reinforce these notions. 
Printing questionnaires in alternative languages to try and 
reach 100 percent of the population is one step in securing the 
level of outreach the Bureau must maintain to ensure that each 
person is counted in the 2000 Decennial Census.

            III. Legislative Hearings and Committee Actions

    H.R. 929 was introduced on March 2, 1999 by the Honorable 
Dan Miller (R-FL). The bill was referred to the Committee on 
Government Reform on March 2, 1999, and it was referred to the 
Subcommittee on the Census March 10, 1999. The Subcommittee 
held a mark-up on March 11, 1999. No amendments were offered, 
and the measure was ordered favorably reported to the full 
Committee by a rollcall vote of 6-4.

                              RECORD VOTE

    Date: March 11, 1999.
    Summary: Passage of H.R. 929.
    Vote by Members: Mr. Miller--Aye; Mr. Doolittle--Aye; Mr. 
Davis of Virginia--Aye; Mr. Souder--Aye; Mr. Ryan--Aye; Mr. 
Burton--Aye; Mrs. Maloney--Nay; Mr. Davis of Illinois--Nay; Mr. 
Ford--Nay; Mr. Waxman--Nay.

              IV. Committee Hearings and Written Testimony

    The Committee did not hold any specific legislative or 
oversight hearings on H.R. 929. However, during an oversight 
hearing entitled ``Oversight of the 2000 Census: Examining the 
America Counts Today (ACT) Initiatives To Enhance Traditional 
Enumeration Methods,'' held on March 2, 1999, the issue 
addressed by this legislation was mentioned.

  V. Explanation of the Bill as Reported: Section-by-Section Analysis

    Section 1. Short Title. This Act may be cited as the ``2000 
Census Language Barrier Removal Act.''
    Section 2. This section adds a requirement to Subchapter I 
of chapter I of title 13, United States Code, insert Sec. 17--
relating to census questionnaires--(a) where the Secretary 
shall design a program to print the short form questionnaires 
used in taking the 2000 Census in alternative languages, other 
than English. Upon request, a household shall receive a 
questionnaire in the alternative language. Furthermore, the 
alternative language short form questionnaires will be made 
available to the public in the manner the Secretary deems most 
feasible to effectively increase response rates in targeted 
areas. (b) The alternative language questionnaires shall be 
printed in the following versions: Arabic, Armenian, Bengali, 
Cambodian, Chinese, Creole, Czech, Dutch, Farsi, French, 
German, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, 
Lao, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, 
Romanian, Russian, Samoan, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish, Tagalog, 
Thai, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Yiddish, and such other languages 
as the Secretary considers appropriate, as well as English 
Braille.

                     VI. Compliance With Rule XIII

    Pursuant to rule XIII, clause 3(c)(1) of the Rules of the 
House of Representatives, under the authority of rule X, clause 
2(b)(1) and clause 3(e), the results and findings from 
committee oversight activities are incorporated in the bill and 
this report.

                  VII. Budget Analysis and Projections

    The budget analysis and projections required by section 
308(a) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 are contained in 
the estimate of the Congressional Budget Office.

         VIII. Cost Estimate of the Congressional Budget Office

                                     U.S. Congress,
                               Congressional Budget Office,
                                     Washington, DC, April 7, 1999.
Hon. Dan Burton,
Chairman, Committee on Government Reform,
House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
    Dear Mr. Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office has 
prepared the enclosed cost estimate for H.R. 929, the 2000 
Census Language Barrier Removal Act.
    If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be 
pleased to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Mark Hadley.
            Sincerely,
                                          Barry B. Anderson
                                    (for Dan L. Crippen, Director).
    Enclosure.

H.R. 929--2000 Census Language Barrier Removal Act

    In conducting the decennial census in 2000, the Bureau of 
the Census will mail every household a questionnaire. The 
bureau plans to provide an alternative questionnaire in five 
languages other than English (Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, 
Tagalog, or Korean) to those households that request one in 
writing. H.R. 929 would require the bureau to provide 
requesting households an alternative questionnaire in one of 34 
languages, including English Braille. The bill also would allow 
the bureau of make additional copies of questionnaires in 
alternative languages available to enhance response rates in 
the 2000 decennial census.
    Based on information from the bureau, CBO estimates that 
implementing H.R. 929 would cost between $10 million and $20 
million in 2000, assuming appropriation of the necessary 
amount. H.R. 929 would not affect direct spending of receipts; 
therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures would not apply. H.R. 929 
contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as 
defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act, and would impose 
no costs on state, local, and tribal governments.
    Based on information from the bureau, CBO estimates that 
the bureau would spend between $5 million and $10 million to 
provide questionnaires in additional languages. According to 
the bureau, 1 percent of households cannot speak English or one 
of the five languages currently included on the alternative 
questionnaires. Although there would be relatively few 
questionnaires in additional languages, the cost per 
questionnaire would be significantly higher than the costs of 
questionnaires for the six languages currently included. The 
bureau would have to change their marketing materials to inform 
households of the alternative forms. Most languages other than 
Spanish and English must be transmitted to printers on film 
(rather than electonic filed), so the printing process would be 
more expensive. Printing questionnaires in Braille would 
require special computer generated zinc plates.
    Collecting data from questionnaires in additional languages 
also would be more expensive. The bureau plans to spend about 
$600 million over the 1998-2000 period on automated data 
processing and telecommunications support. CBO expects the 
bureau would not construct automated systems to capture the 
data from the alternative forms, but instead, would translate 
and manually enter the information into a database. CBO 
estimates that the bureau would spend between $5 million and 
$10 million to process questionnaires in 34 additional 
languages.
    In addition to the costs cited above, H.R. 929 could affect 
spending by the Bureau of the Census in two other ways, but CBO 
cannot estimate their efforts. First, the bureau would likely 
incur additional costs to process more duplicate questionnaires 
if forms in multiple languages are made available in community 
centers. Second, because H.R. 929 could increase the rate of 
response by mail, it could reduce the costs for having 
temporary employees telephoning or visiting households that did 
not respond to the questionnaire. The bureau estimates that a 1 
percent increase in the response rate would save $25 million. 
Hence, it is possible that implementing H.R. 929 could increase 
the mail response rate enough to offset part of the estimated 
$10 million to $20 million in costs; but CBO has no basis for 
estimating the bill's likely effect on the response rate.
    The CBO staff contact is Mark Hadley. This estimate was 
approved by Paul N. Van de Water, Assistant Director for Budget 
Analysis.

       IX. Specific Constitutional Authority for This Legislation

    Clauses 1 and 18 of Article 1, Sec. 8, and Article 1, Sec. 
2 of the Constitution grant Congress the power to enact this 
law.

                      X. Committee Recommendation

    On March 17, 1999, a quorum being present, the Committee on 
Government Reform ordered the bill favorably reported.

                              RECORD VOTE

    Date: March 17, 1999.
    Amendment Number 1 to H.R. 929.
    Summary: Page 2, strike line 5 and all that follows through 
page 3, line 3, and insert the following.
    Offered by: Hon. Eleanor Holmes Norton.
    Failed by recorded vote: 20 ayes; 24 nays.
    Vote by Members: Mr. Burton--Nay; Mr. Gilman--Nay; Mrs. 
Morella--Nay; Mr. Shays--Nay; Ms. Ros-Lehtinen--Nay; Mr. 
McHugh--Nay; Mr. Horn--Nay; Mr. Mica--Nay; Mr. Davis of 
Virginia--Nay; Mr. McIntosh--Nay; Mr. Souder--Nay; Mr. 
Scarborough--Nay; Mr. LaTourette--Nay; Mr. Sanford--Nay; Mr. 
Barr--Nay; Mr. Miller--Nay; Mr. Hutchinson--Nay; Mr. Terry--
Nay; Mrs. Biggert--Nay; Mr. Walden--Nay; Mr. Ose--Nay; Mr. 
Ryan--Nay; Mr. Doolittle--Nay; Mrs. Chenoweth--Nay; Mr. 
Waxman--Aye; Mr. Lantos--Aye; Mr. Wise--Aye; Mr. Owens--Aye; 
Mr. Towns--Aye; Mr. Kanjorski--Aye; Mrs. Mink--Aye; Mr. 
Sanders--Aye; Mrs. Maloney--Aye; Ms. Norton--Aye; Mr. Fattah--
Aye; Mr. Cummings--Aye; Mr. Kucinich--Aye; Mr. Blagojevich--
Aye; Mr. Davis of Illinois--Aye; Mr. Tierney--Aye; Mr. Turner--
Aye; Mr. Allen--Aye; Mr. Ford--Aye; Ms. Schakowsky--Aye.

    Date: March 17, 1999.
    Summary: Final Passage of H.R. 929.
    Offered by: Hon. Dan Miller.
    Approved by recorded vote: 23 ayes; 21 nays.
    Vote by Members: Mr. Burton--Aye; Mr. Gilman--Aye; Mrs. 
Morella--Nay; Mr. Shays--Aye; Ms. Ros-Lehtinen--Aye; Mr. 
McHugh--Aye; Mr. Horn--Aye; Mr. Mica--Aye; Mr. Davis of 
Virginia--Aye; Mr. McIntosh--Aye; Mr. Souder--Aye; Mr. 
Scarborough--Aye; Mr. LaTourette--Aye; Mr. Sanford--Aye; Mr. 
Barr--Nay; Mr. Miller--Aye; Mr. Hutchinson--Aye; Mr. Terry--
Aye; Mrs. Biggert--Aye; Mr. Walden--Aye; Mr. Ose--Aye; Mr. 
Ryan--Aye; Mr. Doolittle--Aye; Mrs. Chenoweth--Aye; Mr. 
Waxman--Nay; Mr. Lantos--Nay; Mr. Wise--Nay; Mr. Owens--Nay; 
Mr. Towns--Nay; Mr. Kanjorski--Nay; Mrs. Mink--Nay; Mr. 
Sanders--Nay; Mrs. Maloney--Nay; Ms. Norton--Nay; Mr. Fattah--
Nay; Mr. Cummings--Nay; Mr. Kucinich--Nay; Mr. Blagojevich--
Nay; Mr. Davis of Illinois--Nay; Mr. Tierney--Nay; Mr. Turner--
Nay; Mr. Allen--Nay; Mr. Ford--Nay; Ms. Schakowsky--Nay.

    XI. Congressional Accountability Act; Public Law 104-1; Section 
                               102(B)(3)

    H.R. 929 requires the Secretary of Commerce to print the 
short form questionnaires used in taking the 2000 Decennial 
Census in alternative languages, aside from English. The Act 
does not apply to the House of Representatives or to the 
Senate, thus H.R. 929 does not apply to Congress.

    XII. Unfunded Mandates Reform Act; Public Law 104-4, Section 423

    The Committee finds that the legislation does not impose 
any Federal mandates within the meaning of section 423 of the 
Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (Public Law 104-4).

   XIII. Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.) Section 5(b)

    The Committee finds that the legislation does not establish 
or authorize establishment of an advisory committee within the 
definition of 5 U.S.C. App., Section 5(b).

       XIV. Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported

  In compliance with clause 3(e) of rule XIII of the Rules of 
the House of Representatives, changes in existing law made by 
the bill, as reported, are shown as follows (new matter is 
printed in italic and existing law in which no change is 
proposed is shown in roman):

TITLE 13, UNITED STATES CODE

           *       *       *       *       *       *       *



                       CHAPTER 1--ADMINISTRATION


                    SUBCHAPTER I--GENERAL PROVISIONS

Sec.
 1. Definitions.
     * * * * * * *
17. Requirement relating to census questionnaires.
     * * * * * * *

SUBCHAPTER I--GENERAL PROVISIONS

           *       *       *       *       *       *       *


Sec. 5. Questionnaires; number, form, and scope of inquiries

      The Secretary shall prepare questionnaires, and shall 
determine the inquiries, and the number, form, and subdivisions 
thereof, for the statistics, surveys, and censuses provided for 
in this [title.] title, subject to section 17.

           *       *       *       *       *       *       *


Sec. 17. Requirement relating to census questionnaires

  (a) The Secretary shall design and carry out a program under 
which--
          (1) the short form used in taking the 2000 decennial 
        census shall, in addition to being printed in English, 
        be prepared in each of the alternative versions 
        described in subsection (b);
          (2) upon request, a household shall, instead of 
        receiving the printed English version of that short 
        form, be sent the alternative version (described in 
        subsection (b)) specified in its request; and
          (3) those alternative versions shall otherwise be 
        made available to the public in such manner as will, in 
        the judgment of the Secretary, most effectively enhance 
        response rates in the 2000 decennial census.
  (b) The versions described in this subsection are Arabic, 
Armenian, Bengali, Cambodian, Chinese, Creole, Czech, Dutch, 
Farsi, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, 
Japanese, Korean, Lao, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, 
Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Samoan, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish, 
Tagalog, Thai, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Yiddish, and such other 
languages as the Secretary considers appropriate, as well as 
braille (for at least English).
  (c) For purposes of this Act--
          (1) the term ``decennial census'' means a decennial 
        census of population conducted under section 141(a); 
        and
          (2) the term ``short form'' refers to the short form 
        of the questionnaire used in taking a decennial census.

           *       *       *       *       *       *       *


                             MINORITY VIEWS

    H.R. 929 is supposed to address the enumeration of non-
English speaking households, when in reality it does little 
other than muddle a process that as currently planned by the 
Census Bureau is both thorough and concise. What this bill does 
accomplish is to require the Census Bureau to renegotiate 
existing printing contracts and establish a second system for 
distributing foreign language forms which will compete with 
existing programs for funding.
    This bill micro-manages the census. It would require the 
Secretary to print the census short forms in Braille and 33 
languages other than English. Foreign language forms would be 
required to be provided upon request.
    Passage of this bill would present serious problems for the 
Census Bureau. Dr. Prewitt, director of the Census Bureau, 
wrote to the Secretary of Commerce on this bill stating:

          Were H.R. 929 to become law, the entire census 
        questionnaire workflow for receipt, image capture, 
        transcription, and key-from-paper would have to be 
        modified. We would have to renegotiate our largest 
        contracts--including nearly 20 printing contracts; the 
        contracts for the Telephone Questionnaire Assistance 
        program; Data Capture and Data Capture Service Centers.
          An extensive amount of planning and evaluation has 
        gone into developing a system for mailing a pre-census 
        letter to 120 million households and for announcing the 
        availability of questionnaires in six languages 
        including English, which account for 99 percent of all 
        households in the U.S. The wording on this pre-census 
        letter has been carefully designed to minimize 
        confusion and maximize cooperation. If H.R. 929 became 
        law, we would have to figure out how to announce the 
        availability of forms in another 27 languages, which 
        may be of concern to approximately one million 
        households, without confusing the remaining 119 million 
        households.1
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ Kenneth Prewitt, Director of the Census Bureau, Memorandum for 
the Secretary, 2 (March 16, 1999).

    The minority is concerned that all persons be counted, and 
is particularly concerned about those persons who do not speak 
or read English. That is why we oppose this bill. This bill 
does not further the enumeration of all people, but rather is 
less effective than the plan designed by the Census Bureau. 
Indeed, the Census Bureau considered and specifically rejected 
a plan very similar to the one encapsulated in the bill after a 
thorough business analysis.
    The Census Bureau has developed a program to reach 99% of 
the households in America. That program is integrated into the 
basic mail-out/mail-back structure of the census. To reach the 
remaining 1% of the households, the Census Bureau has developed 
an integrated language program that involves 15,000 paid 
temporary staff positions in the Questionnaire Assistance 
Centers, drawn from a wide range of language communities, and 
will prepare 15 million assistance guides in several dozen 
languages. H.R. 929, if enacted, would divert funds away from 
this more effective plan.
    The minority proposed an amendment to this bill at both the 
Subcommittee and full Committee markups. That amendment would 
have reiterated the congressional goal that the Census Bureau 
should make every effort to assure that all people are counted 
regardless of the language they speak. It would, however, leave 
the design and implementation strategy for that goal to the 
professionals at the Census Bureau. The amendment was rejected 
both times on a party-line vote.
    Taking the census is a complicated task. The Census Bureau 
is charged with counting 120 million addresses and 275 million 
persons and matching them up on a single day--April 1, 2000. To 
accomplish that task the Census Bureau will go from a work 
force of 10,000 employees to over 500,000 employees and back to 
10,000 in a six-month period. The Census Bureau must count 
people in the most dangerous parts of the United States and in 
gated communities where strangers are barred by armed guards. 
It must count the homeless and those in temporary housing. All 
of this is done under the scrutiny of every local official in 
the country.
    The design to accomplish this task involves years of 
planning, and then that design must be translated into detailed 
activity schedules which lay out each procedure and how it 
intertwines with every other procedure. This bill is designed 
to throw a monkey wrench into the cogs of that machine. 
Congress should provide the Census Bureau with policy guidance, 
but it should not interfere with the professionals as they 
carry out this enormous task.

                                   Henry A. Waxman.
                                   Jan Schakowsky.
                                   Tom Allen.
                                   Bernard Sanders.
                                   Edolphus Towns.
                                   Jim Turner.
                                   Elijah E. Cummings.
                                   Major R. Owens.
                                   Bob Wise.
                                   Harold E. Ford, Jr.
                                   Carolyn B. Maloney.
                                   Dennis J. Kucinich.
                                   Chaka Fattah.
                                   Paul E. Kanjorski.
                                   Patsy T. Mink.
                                   Rod R. Blagojevich.
                                   Danny K. Davis.
                                   Tom Lantos.
                                   Eleanor H. Norton.
                                   John F. Tierney.

                                
