Date: Thu, 6 Aug 1998 11:23:28 -0400
From: census2000 <census2000(a)ccmc.org>
House Approves Funding Restriction on Census Operations,
Rejecting Mollohan Amendment
Appropriators Also Say Operational Problems Put Census At
Risk
The House of Representatives yesterday approved, by a vote
of 225 - 203, a $34 billion spending measure that includes
$952 million for 2000 census preparations but withholds half
of that amount until Congress and the Administration agree
on a final census design by March 1999. On a mostly party
line vote of 201 - 227, the House rejected an amendment
offered by Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV) to remove the funding
restriction. The amendment also would have required the
Census Bureau to continue planning for the census on dual
tracks until the Supreme Court rules on two pending lawsuits
challenging the constitutionality and legality of sampling
in the census.
In two hours of debate, supporters and opponents of the 2000
census plan sparred over the validity of scientific methods
to augment direct counting efforts, constitutional
requirements, and the timing of a final resolution of the
controversy over census methods. Rep. Mollohan said his
goal was to "again focus the debate on issues of science and
accuracy," and noted that the Bureau needed $644 million to
carry out census preparations through March 1999, $169
million more than the funding bill allows. He warned that
the funding split proposed by critics of the Bureau's plan
would be "fatally destabiliz[e]" the census. Rep. Harold
Rogers (R-KY), head of the Commerce appropriations
subcommittee, said the two-part arrangement represented an
agreement
between the President and congressional Republican leaders
last November to resolve the dispute over methods next
spring. The President was afraid that his "radical plan for
polling" would not withstand public scrutiny, Rogers said.
Rep. Dan Miller (R-FL), chair of the census oversight panel,
praised parts of the Bureau's 2000 plan, including the move
to paid advertising. He condemned the proposed use of
scientific methods, however, saying that the Bureau will
"intentionally not count 26 or 27 million people," but
instead will use "cloning techniques" to create a "virtual
population." Rep. Miller suggested that administrative
records, including data on Medicaid recipients, could help
reduce the undercount. The Census Bureau decided not to
collect social security numbers after tests showed a
significant drop in response if people are asked to give
that information. Social security numbers would be needed
to access most government records. Rep. Tom Sawyer (D-OH),
who headed the census subcommittee during the last census,
pointed out that direct counting methods resulted in a large
number of mistakes in 1990, including a 38 percent error
rate during the final weeks of the door-to-door visits.
The Fiscal Year 1999 Commerce, State, Justice, and The
Judiciary Appropriations bill (H.R. 4276) also includes $4
million for the Census Monitoring Board. The Senate passed
its version of the funding measure (S. 2260) on July 23. A
conference committee of the House and Senate must resolve
differences between the two bills, and both chambers must
give final approval to the conference agreement, before
sending it to the President for a signature or veto.
While the controversy over sampling continued to dominate
public debate, House appropriators also raised serious
concerns about the progress of certain key census
preparations. In a written report explaining provisions of
the Commerce bill in more detail, the funding committee
noted that the Bureau faces problems with "every major
component and activity of the Census plan," including
address list development, outreach, and computer software to
weed out duplicate forms. The fiscal year 1999 bill
includes $32 million above the Bureau's request for
additional promotion and outreach efforts and $82 million
more to open local census offices earlier than originally
planned. The committee directed the Bureau to provide
Congress with monthly reports on how it was spending its
2000 census funds.
Census Monitoring Board activities: On August 5, the Census
Monitoring Board visited Columbia, South Carolina, one of
three sites where the Census Bureau is trying out procedures
for the 2000 census. The Bureau agreed last year to conduct
a dry run without using scientific sampling methods in
Columbia and eleven surrounding rural counties. The
Monitoring Board also planned to hear testimony from
Regional Census Bureau Director Susan Hardy and local
government officials and community leaders.
Questions about the information contained in this News Alert
may be directed to TerriAnn Lowenthal at (202) 484-2270 or,
by e-mail at <terriann2k(a)aol.com>. Please direct all
requests to receive News Alerts, and all changes in
address/phone/fax/e-mail, to Keri Monihan at
<kmonihan(a)ccmc.org> or 202/326-8728. Please feel free to
circulate this information to colleagues and other
interested individuals.
********** C E N S U S 2 0 0 0 B U L L E T I N
**********
Vol. 2 - No. 37 Aug. 5,
1998
About 15,000 temporary workers, armed with clipboards, lists
and small-area maps, headed late last week into the remoter
parts of the countryside where dwellings do not have
city-style house-number and street-name addresses. Their
job: to verify the accuracy and currency of the Census
Bureau's address information.
It was the first major Census 2000-related operation visible
to the general public in communities across the country. The
preparations will culminate on Census Day, April 1, 2000.
The address-listing operation is crucial to an accurate and
complete census since the resulting master address list will
be used for delivering questionnaires, following up with
nonrespondents and as the universe from which to draw
representative samples.
The operation covering "non-city-style" address areas will
be conducted in three waves, generally working from north to
south, although the first wave will take place, to some
extent, in all 12 of the Census Bureau's regions. The first
wave, with "listers" working out of 82 census field offices,
will extend to Sept. 11.
The second wave, in which 199 field offices will
participate, runs from Oct. 8 through Nov. 19. The third
wave, involving the remaining 120 offices, is scheduled to
take place from Nov. 9 through Dec. 18. By the time the
non-city-style address-listing operation is completed, some
30,000 temporary workers will have been employed. Later,
other address listers will do similar checking in urban and
suburban areas where housing units have city-style
addresses.
The current corps of address "listers" worked in two-person
teams, driving down country roads and dirt paths to obtain
complete and accurate addresses for every habitable dwelling
and then, "spotting" them on local-area maps.
In many cases, address listers interviewed residents to
determine the most accurate addresses for cabins, trailers,
converted barns, packing houses, boxcars, even caves. In
agricultural areas, they visited farms, fields and orchards
in search of migrant workers' living quarters.
News coverage in sparsely-settled eastern San Diego County,
Calif., helped listers working those areas. According to
Census Bureau area manager Julie Ly, several listers were
greeted warmly by residents, who offered to help them locate
sheds and mobile homes being used as housing that could not
have been spotted from the roads. The residents heard about
the address-listing operation on local radio stations.
Two of the oldest applicants for the address-lister job were
an 84-year-old woman from New Hampshire, who asked the
recruiter, "I think I'm young enough to do this job, don't
you, dear?" and an 82-year-old in Douglas County, S.D., near
Sioux Falls. Both women were veterans of past censuses, the
South Dakota woman starting in 1950.
The address-listing job is open to retired people, most
current federal government employees, students, people who
want to work a second job -- in short, anyone 18 or over who
passes the written test and has four to five hours available
during the day or evenings and on weekends. Since they
generally must be familiar with the areas on their maps,
most end up working close to their homes.
U.S. citizenship is required, except where specific language
needs exist and a qualified U.S. citizen is not available.
Address listers also must have a driver's license and
reliable transportation. In Spanish-speaking areas, the
Census Bureau has tried to hire bilingual people who can
communicate with local residents.
For further information about this bulletin, contact J. Paul
Wyatt of the Public Information Office on 301-457-3052 (fax:
301-457-3670; e-mail: pio(a)census.gov).
Dear Urban Mobility Professional,
Due to the summer holidays there was no issue of our Urban Mobility
Professional last month. This month's issue will be discussing Traffic
Management and will be sent to the subscriber the end of next week (August
13/14).
In the September issue we will be discussing Logistics. I would like to ask
you if you have any information such as articles and press releases that
could be of interest to our subscribers. In addition I am looking for
"Logistics" experts to list in our magazine.
If you are interested I will need the following information:
1. Name
2. E-mail
3. A short CV
4. Your picture (if available)
Looking forward to your reactions.
Thank you and best regards,
Cindy Kerckhoffs
Editor / Information Manager
Urban Mobility Network
P.O. Box 917
6200 AX Maastricht
Tel. ++31 43 3213022
Fax. ++31 43 3211062
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