[CTPP] census "in the news"

There are two articles on the back page of the February 8, 2001, Wall Street Journal, worth looking at. They both deal with issues of sampling and adjustments. One is titled "Bush's Next Recount Battle: Should Census Tallies Be Adjusted?. Below is a press release I receive relative to this article from the Census 2000 group. The other article is titled "Asian Americans Join Census Complaints, Calling for Adjustments via 'sampling'". If you have access to the Wall Street Journal give these articles a look. (The Wall Street Journal is online at www.wsj.com unfortunately you need an account to get to the back page articles.) ================= Date: Thu, 8 Feb 2001 12:35:48 -0500 From: Census2000 <Census2000(a)ccmc.org> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, CONTACT: BEN CHEVAT, 202-225-7944 Maloney Slams Reports of White House "Private Promises" to Block use of Accurate Census Data NEW YORK, NY - After reading in the Wall Street Journal today that President Bush has promised House Republicans that his administration will block the use of corrected Census numbers in configuring congressional districts throughout the country, Census Subcommittee Ranking Member Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY) released the following statement: The report states that Republicans on Capitol Hill insist, "The White House has privately promised to block states from using sampled numbers to redraw any of the nation's 435 congressional districts." In the story, it was also reported that Missouri GOP Rep. Roy Blunt, Bush's point person in Congress, went on to say he does "not believe there is any reason," that the President would allow the use of "statistical sampling," (WSJ, 02/08/01). "If this report is true, President Bush is now in clear contradiction with statements he made just days ago, when he told every Democratic Member of Congress, in response to a question I posed on correcting the Census undercount, 'I haven't been briefed on that,'" Maloney said today. "When was the President briefed and when did he know it?" Referring to the disenfranchisement of thousands of minority voters in this fall's election in Florida, Maloney added, "This decision will make Florida look like a case of petty theft." "Even worse than the fact that millions of Americans must learn about the Bush Administration's position on counting every American through media reports of 'private promises,' is the fact that it has also now been reported that the Bush team is relying on the counsel of top Republican National Committee staff including 'redistricting guru' Tom Hoffeler, in developing their Census strategy." "President Bush's Republican Administration and colleagues are obviously not worried about the consequences of deciding not to accurately count America's historically undercounted Black, Hispanic, Asian and American Indian populations, but I can guarantee they will be worried when America's Black, Hispanic, Asian and American Indian populations learn that the Bush Administration and their GOP cohorts have decided that they don't count," Maloney concluded. ###