Subject: Census 2000 News Alert
Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 12:04:21 -0400
From: Keri Monihan <kmonihan(a)ccmc.org>
May 22, 1998
NEWS ALERT
Subcommittee Hears Nearly Unanimous Support For Census 'Long Form' in
2000
Conservative Organizations Form Coalition To Prevent Sampling In Census
At an oversight hearing yesterday to review the proposed 'short' and
'long' questionnaires for the 2000 census, a parade of witnesses
representing a diverse range of stakeholders told legislators that
demographic and economic data collected in the census were vital to
support decisionmaking, planning, and resource allocation by local
governments, community-based service providers, and private business.
They noted that the $400 million cost of including a long form in the
census was a modest investment, given the nearly $200 billion in Federal
funds alone that are allocated each year to state and local governments
on the basis of census data. Supporters of the long form also suggested
that it was not responsible for the drop in census participation, since
the number of questions has been reduced over the past few decades while
response rates continued to fall.
The House Subcommittee on the Census heard testimony from Rep. Constance
Morella (R-MD), sponsor of legislation (H. Con. Res. 246) in support of
continuing the census long form in 2000; Rep. Charles Canady (R-FL),
sponsor of a bill (H.R. 2081) to require the collection of data on
family caregivers in the census; David Clawson, American Association of
State Transportation and Highway Organizations; Helen Samhan, Working
Group on Ancestry in the U.S. Census; James Hubbard, The American
Legion; David Crowe, representing the Coalition to Preserve Census Data,
a group of industry and business associations; Wen-Yen Chen, Formosan
Association for Public Affairs; and Marlo Lewis, Jr., Competitive
Enterprise Institute, a self-described public interest group that
promotes private voluntary alternatives to government programs and
regulations.
Only Mr. Lewis spoke against the continued collection of demographic and
socio-economic data in the census, saying that the long form contributes
to public distrust of government and that at a minimum, response should
be voluntary. Mr. Chen proposed that the race question include
Taiwanese as a separate category that respondents can check off. In
1990, the Census Bureau did not tabulate Taiwanese as a separate race,
citing concerns by the State Department that diplomatic relations with
China might be harmed. Respondents who received a long form could
indicate Taiwanese background on the ancestry question.
Subcommittee Chairman Dan Miller (R-FL) said: "There's no question that
we'll have a long form in 2000." He did not indicate whether he
supported the range of questions proposed by the Census Bureau or
maintaining the sample size of 17 percent (an average of one in six) of
housing units. The chairman said he intends to hold additional hearings
on the Census Bureau's proposal to eliminate the long form in 2010 by
implementing a continuous survey (known as the American Community
Survey, or ACS) throughout the decade to collect the same range of
information and produce annual estimates for every jurisdiction. The
panel's senior Democrat, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), held up a copy of
USA Today with all of the articles cut out that referenced data derived
directly or indirectly from the census long form. Most of the front
page was gone, as were several other articles and one editorial. Rep.
Vince Snowbarger (R-KS) asked several witnesses why local governments
couldn't do a better job at collecting data on their own communities.
Advocacy campaign against sampling: About a dozen organizations
generally associated with conservative causes announced the formation of
the Citizens for an Honest Count Coalition at a press conference on
Capitol Hill yesterday. Led by Grover Norquist, president of Americans
for Tax Reform (ATR), the organizations announced a grassroots campaign
to "save the 2000 Census from political manipulation by the Clinton
Administration" by preventing the use of sampling to conduct the count.
ATR also opposes continuation of the long form questionnaire.
Among the groups announcing their involvement in the effort were the
Washington Legal Foundation, the Law Enforcement Alliance of America
(LEAA), and the 60 Plus Association, which describes itself as a
conservative alternative to the American Association of Retired Persons
(AARP). 60 Plus said that sampling "will hurt senior citizens," who may
find themselves "subject to large tax increases [because] federal aid
[will] shift to the areas (e.g. urban areas) which were 'statistically
sampled'."
Rep. Carolyn Maloney, co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on the
Census, said in a written statement that "a simple look at the
background of the groups involved shows that they all represent one,
partisan group: the Republican National Committee." She called the new
coalition a "farce" and "partisanship at its most damaging." Maloney
said that ATR received funds from the Republican National Committee
during the 1996 election campaign and the LEAA was founded with funds
from the National Rifle Association.
Appropriations update: Congress continues to proceed slowly on
legislation that will fund the Federal government in Fiscal Year 1999,
with the House falling well behind the usual schedule for budget and
funding bills. The Senate approved its version of a budget resolution
for FY99 in April and its appropriations panel has now set broad
spending levels for each of 13 budget categories. The Subcommittee on
Commerce, Justice, State and The Judiciary, which funds the Census
Bureau, received an allocation of $32.2 billion, about $1.2 billion (3.6
percent) below the President's request of $33.4 billion. The
subcommittee must now draft and approve a bill that divides the $32.2
billion among all of the agencies and programs under its jurisdiction,
ranging from weather programs to criminal justice activities to State
Department priorities to the census.
In the House this week, the Budget Committee cleared a FY99 budget
resolution that provides broad guidance to the appropriators on spending
and revenues. Congress is supposed to approve a budget resolution each
year by April 15 but often misses the legal deadline. The House
Appropriations Committee is poised to divvy up among its subcommittees
the $1.7 trillion that will be available for Federal programs in FY99,
even before the full House approves the tardy budget measure.
Committee roster change: Rep. Ron Lewis (R-KY) has been appointed to
take the place of Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) on the Subcommittee on the
Census, House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight. Rep. Lewis
joined the full committee recently to fill a vacancy created by the
death of Rep. Steven Schiff (R-NM), who recently succumbed to cancer.
Stakeholder activities: The National Urban League, a member of the 2000
Census Advisory Committee, co-hosted a meeting with Census Bureau
officials on May 5 in New York City to discuss ways of promoting the
2000 census in the African American community. Urban League President
Hugh Price spoke to program participants, who also heard from Acting
Census Bureau Director James Holmes and New York Regional Director Tony
Farthing.
The Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. hosted a discussion about the
census at its annual policy conference on May 19 in Washington, D.C.
Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ), Census Bureau Associate Director for Field
Operations Marvin Raines, and Census 2000 Initiative project consultant
TerriAnn Lowenthal discussed ways that civic organizations can help
ensure an accurate census in 2000.
Worth reading: An article in the May/June 1998 issue of The
Sciences,gives a particularly comprehensive and clear picture of how the
census is taken, and the major issues involved in achieving an accurate
count. Please contact Henry Griggs at the Communications Consortium
Media Center (<hgriggs(a)ccmc.org>) is you cannot obtain a copy on your
own.
Coming soon to a web site near you! The Census 2000 Initiative is
nearing completion of its web site to keep census stakeholders informed
about key policy issues affecting the next count. The site will include
recent News Alerts, an archive of past News Alerts, fact sheets on key
issues, and links to stakeholder organizations involved in census
activities or issues. If your organization (nonpartisan) maintains a
web site with census-related information, please let us know. Watch for
details about the Initiative's site in future News Alerts.
Questions about the information contained in this News Alert may be
directed to TerriAnn Lowenthal at (202) 434-8756 or, by e-mail, at
<TerriAnnL(a)aol.com>. Please feel free to circulate this information to
colleagues and other interested individuals.
Iguana Incorporated would like to announce availability of a new white paper which is
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Chuck--
I saw Pat Hu last week and she knows Tommy Wright. She had copies of the
article and gave me one. I can certainly make it available if someone
wants it. I can slip you one in Portland and bring some for Seattle. I
think the article is a must read for anyone who is interested in
understanding the mechanical concepts behind "ratio estimation" with a
"dual-system estimation" process. It is the kind of article that will be
kept inside my textbooks dealing with survey design. And well worth a
read---just don't ask me to re-explain the techniques. <g>
Thanks for putting us on the scent of the article.
ed christopher
Chuck Purvis (MTC) wrote:
> Dear CTPP-Newsers:
>
> I came across this reference to an article on "Sampling and Census
> 2000: The Concepts" published by the "American Scientist" magazine.
> Unfortunately, a full text of this article is not provided. The
> article is by Dr. Tommy Wright of the Census Bureau. An abstract, and
> a discussion forum, is at:
>
> http://www.amsci.org/amsci/articles/98articles/wright.html
>
> If anybody can find a copy of this journal, a few of us might be
> interested in reading it. (Or maybe we could get a copy from Dr.
> Wright?)
>
> Chuck Purvis
> *******************************************************
> e-mail: cpurvi(a)mtc.dst.ca.us *or* cpurvi(a)mtc.ca.gov
> or cpurvis(a)mtc.dst.ca.us *or* cpurvis(a)mtc.ca.gov
> Chuck Purvis, AICP
> Senior Transportation Planner/Analyst, Planning Section
> Metropolitan Transportation Commission
> 101 Eighth Street, Oakland, CA 94607-4700
> (510) 464-7731 (voice) (510) 464-7848 (fax)
> WWW: http://www.mtc.ca.gov/ (New Address: FEB1398)
> MTC DataMart & InfoMart:
> http://www.mtc.ca.gov/facts_and_figures/datamart.htm
> MTC FTP Site: ftp://ftp.abag.ca.gov/pub/mtc/planning/
> Personal WWW: http://home.earthlink.net/~clpurvis/
> *******************************************************
Subject: Census 2000 News Alert
Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 18:27:12 -0400
From: Keri Monihan <kmonihan(a)ccmc.org>
May 12, 1998
NEWS ALERT
House Census Panel Challenges Portrayal of 1990 Census as a
Failure
Hearing Scheduled to Review Data Collection on Census 'Long
Form'
At a May 5 hearing to review the results of the 1990 census,
the chairman of the congressional census oversight panel
suggested that the last decennial count was not the failure
portrayed by many stakeholders. Rep. Dan Miller (R-FL),
chairman of the Subcommittee on the Census, called 1990 "a
pretty good census, the second most accurate in census
history" because it counted 98.4 percent of the population.
On the other hand, the chairman said, "[s]ampling was the
failure in 1990."
Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership
Conference on Civil Rights, disagreed, noting that the 1990
census was the first "in five decades [to be] less accurate
than its predecessor" and that the "differential undercount
was the highest ever recorded." "To those who are willing
to settle for similar results in 2000," Mr. Henderson asked,
"how will we explain this to persons who are among the
undercounted?" He also reminded the subcommittee that many
of their colleagues, both Republicans and Democrats, had
called the 1990 census a failure and supported the use of
sampling methods to correct the undercount at that time.
The subcommittee also heard from a panel of two
statisticians and one demographer. Dr. Jerry Coffey, a
mathematical statistician retired from OMB; Dr. Philip
Stark, Professor of Statistics at UC Berkeley; and Kenneth
Darga, a demographer with the State of Michigan, said that
based on their review of Census Bureau evaluations of the
1990 census provided by the subcommittee, they believed the
methods used to measure how many people were missed were too
flawed to give an accurate result. Dr. Stark said that the
Bureau's undercount figures reflected more problems with the
methods themselves than an actual undercount. "Adjustment
puts in far more error than it takes out," Dr. Stark
concluded. Dr. Coffey said that the larger sample for the
post-census quality check survey would not solve the
problems of statistical errors in the adjustment methods.
Dr. Stark was quoted in The Washington Times on May 6 as
saying that he disagreed with the findings of several
National Academy of Sciences panels because "I place more
trust on evidence than on letterheads. There is no data and
no mathematical theory to support the use of sampling in
this way." The subcommittee did not invite witnesses who
believe the Census Bureau's methodology is sound or who had
participated in the evaluations of the 1990 census.
Rep. Thomas Sawyer (D-OH), chairman of the census oversight
panel during the 1990 count, and Rep. Thomas Petri (R-WI),
senior Republican on the census subcommittee when planning
for the 2000 census began, also testified and urged their
colleagues to reduce the political rhetoric surrounding the
census.
Congressional hearing notice: The House Subcommittee on the
Census will hold a hearing on Thursday, May 21, to review
the proposed questions that will be asked on the so-called
'short' and 'long' forms in the 2000 census. The hearing
will begin at 1:00 p.m., in Room 2247 Rayburn House Office
Building. The subcommittee has not yet announced a witness
list.
Race and ethnicity update: The Census Bureau's various
advisory committees will hold a joint meeting on June 3 to
discuss the tabulation of multiple responses to the race
question in the 2000 census and other surveys. A task force
set up by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has been
working to develop standards for tabulating the data when
respondents check off more than one race. OMB decided last
October, as part of a comprehensive review of its policy on
racial and ethnic categories, to allow more than one
response when Federal agencies collect data on race. The
day-long advisory committee meeting, which is open to the
public, will take place at the Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites,
625 First St., Alexandria, VA. Please call Carol McDaniel
(301/457-2308) at the Census Bureau for more information.
Legal update: Several new parties have weighed in on the
side of plaintiffs challenging the constitutionality of
sampling in the census. The State of Wisconsin and more than
a dozen organizations, including Americans for Tax Reform
and the American Conservative Union, filed amicus curiae
briefs in the lawsuit filed by the House of Representatives
at the direction of Speaker Newt Gingrich. Wisconsin sued
to prevent an adjustment of the 1990 census, fearing the
loss of a congressional seat to California. Population
projections show that the state is likely to lose a
congressional district following the 2000 census.
The Pennsylvania counties of Bucks and Delaware, and DuPage
County, Illinois, have moved to intervene in Glavin v.
Clinton, which also asks the courts to rule that the
Constitution does not permit sampling. Cobb County,
Georgia, is an original plaintiff in Glavin. More than two
dozen Georgia counties sued the government during the 1990
census to force a correction of the undercount using
sampling methods. The post-census survey showed that Bucks
and Delaware Counties were overcounted in 1990.
Stakeholder activities: The chair of the 2000 Census
Advisory Committee, Mayor Ann Azari (Ft. Collins, CO) sent a
letter on April 17 to Commerce Secretary William M. Daley,
expressing concerns raised by committee members at their
March quarterly meeting. Referring to ongoing debates over
key census issues, Mayor Azari said that the "credibility"
of both the Census Bureau and the census process were at
stake and urged "reinforcement that the Census Bureau is a
credible, capable, professional organization [that] is the
best in class at what they do." Noting the continued
uncertainty over how the next census will be taken, the
Advisory Committee urged the Secretary to provide
comprehensive information on the census process to Congress
so that an "intelligent and informed" decision on census
methods could be made. Azari also said that new census
methods have been the subject of controversy in the past,
noting that Congress questioned the transition to a
mail-based census in 1970 because the procedures hadn't been
tested on a national scale. The Census Bureau, Azari wrote,
"does have a history of innovation." The committee also
encouraged the prompt nomination of a permanent Bureau
director and attention to the "basic building blocks," such
as address lists and promotion, that are needed to take a
good census.
The next quarterly meeting of the 2000 Census Advisory
Committee will be June 11-12, at Census Bureau headquarters
in Suitland, MD. The meeting is open to the public;
however, if you plan to attend, please contact Ms. Pat Ellis
at 301-457-2095 to ensure proper clearance and to obtain an
agenda.
The Subcommittee on the Census has notified us that Chairman
Dan Miller will lead a discussion sponsored by The Heritage
Foundation entitled, "Virtual Representation: Is Census
Sampling Good Enough?" Matthew Glavin, President of the
Southeastern Legal Foundation and lead plaintiff in a
lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of sampling in the
census, and Lee Price, Chief Economist (and former Acting
Under Secretary), Department of Commerce, will respond to
the chairman's remarks. The event will take place on May
19, at 12:00 p.m., at the Heritage Foundation offices.
Please call Paul Love at 202-675-1752, if you would like to
attend or for further information.
Questions about the information contained in this News Alert
may be directed to TerriAnn Lowenthal at (202) 434-8756 or,
by e-mail, at <TerriAnnL(a)aol.com>. Please feel free to
circulate this information to colleagues and other
interested individuals.
Hello everyone:
Does somebody knows if the geographical boundary for the 'puma' field in
the housing unit record correspond to the same geographical unit for
'powpuma' field (place of work puma) in the person record? If not, do
you where to find equivalence table between county and powpuma, or
county and puma?
Thank you for your cooperation,
Gustavo A. Baez
Senior Transportation Planer
North Central Texas Council of Governments
Email: gbaez(a)nctcog.dst.tx.us
Dear Mobility Proffesional,
Urban Mobility Network (http://www.mobility-net.com) is proud to present to
you the FREE monthly electronic magazine:
The Urban Mobility Professional.
Presenting to you the latest news items in the Urban Mobility branch,
including information regarding:
- Industry headlines,
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- information on individual experts,
- progress on ongoing research projects,
- etc.
Furthermore, each issue will include full articles, written by professionals
active in Parking, ITS, Road Construction, Urban Planning, Traffic and
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To receive the UMP, starting at the end of May, you can subscribe by
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For:
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The first issue will discuss information regarding the millenium problem. I
would like to ask you as an Urban Mobility expert if you are interested to
publish your views/information regarding the millenium problem in the
upcoming issue of The Urban Mobility Professional. All documents received
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The recently released 1990 census data on working at home is
accessible through the census web site (http://www.census.gov).
Click on "New on the site", and then in the scrollable list on the
selection entitled:
"Census Brief, Increase in At-Home Workers Reverses Earlier Trend
(CENBR/98-2) 05/07/1998."
This will take you to a copy of the census brief in Adobe PDF format.
Additional tables on the work-at-home population (CPH-L-195) may be
found by clicking on the following entry in the scrollable list:
"Working At Home 05/07/1998,"
(http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/workathome.html)
and scrolling down to the list of 6 tables.
>From the AP newswire.
If the report is online, maybe Phil or Gloria could tell us.
05/07/98- Updated 10:58 AM ET
More Americans telecommuting
WASHINGTON - When Thomas Wolfe wrote "you can't go home again" he
obviously wasn't thinking of America's workers.
In the decade of the 1980s the number of people working at home
jumped 56%, the Census Bureau reported Thursday.
And it's no doubt a lot higher now.
Previously unpublished data from the 1990 Census showed 3,406,025
people working at home that year, 3% of all working people.
That was up from 2,179,863 who worked at home in 1980, a figure that
had been declining since it was first measured in 1960.
"The decade of the 1980s marked a rebirth of work at home in the
United States," reported Census population expert Phillip A. Salopek.
"It is noteworthy that this impressive growth occurred before the
expansion of the Internet."
Thanks to the growth of computer use, the bureau noted that a 1997
survey for Telecommute America estimated the number of people
"telecommuting" to work via computer had reached 11 million.
In 1960, when the Census Bureau first asked about working at home, it
found 4,662,750 people in that category. That fell to 2,685,144 in
1970 and continued to decline in 1980 before turning upward again.
"Quite a lot of the decrease" in working at home before 1980 was a
result of the decline in family farms, explained Census' Gloria
Swieczkowski. Why the sudden turnaround: "I don't guess we really
know that for sure."
She said Census and private population analysts are eager to see the
total who work at home in the upcoming Census 2000.
The Census report on people working at home in 1990 showed:
A slim majority, 52%, were women, although they made up just 45% of
people who worked outside the home. Home workers were 92% white, 4%
black and 5% Hispanic. Those working outside the home were 83% white,
10% black and just under 8% Hispanic. Hispanics can be member of any
race and are included in figures for blacks, whites and others. Some
54% of home workers were self-employed, compared with 5.5% of workers
outside the home.
By The Associated Press
Dear Urban Mobility Professional,
Urban Mobility Network (http://www.mobility-net.com) is proud to present to you the FREE monthly electronic magazine:
The Urban Mobility Professional.
Presenting to you the latest news items in the Urban Mobility branch, including information regarding:
a.. Industry headlines,
b.. branch related events,
c.. information on individual experts,
d.. progress on ongoing research projects,
e.. etc.
Furthermore, each issue will include full articles, written by professionals active in Parking, ITS, Road Construction, Urban Planning, Traffic and Public Transport. It is intended to dedicate the respective articles to specific branch related topics.
To receive the UMP, starting at the end of May, you can subscribe by e-mailing the below information.
For:
a.. E-magazine including images:
This service is only available if you have one of the following mail-programs: Netscape 4 / Outlook Express 97/ Eudora 4 etc.). To subscribe, please send an e-mail to mailmanager(a)mobility-net.com with the following message in the body: join UMP
a.. E-magazine in text format:
To subscribe, please send an e-mail to mailmanager(a)mobility-net.com with the following message in the body: join UMP-T
If you have any question, suggestions concerning the Urban Mobility Professional, or you would like to publish one of your articles or other information, please e-mail to Cindy Kerckhoffs (C.Kerckhoffs(a)mobility-net.com).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward this e-mail to other professionals interested in the
Urban Mobility Professional.
