[CTPP] Census 2000 News Alert

Date: July 15, 1998 From: Joy Garner <jgarner(a)ccmc.org> House Appropriators Stick with Six-Month Funding For Census, Reject Amendment to Keep Funds Flowing Past March Bill Also Aims to Boost Census Employment Opportunities Among Recipients of Federal Benefits In a 22 - 31 party-line vote, the House Appropriations Committee today rejected an amendment offered by Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV) that would provide uninterrupted funding for 2000 census activities in fiscal year 1999 (FY99). The committee approved the FY99 Commerce, Justice, State and The Judiciary spending bill with language adopted by the subcommittee on June 24 that only funds 2000 census work through March 31, 1999. Subcommittee Chairman Harold Rogers (R-KY) said the six-month funding provisions represented a deal reached last fall between the White House and congressional Republican leaders. The Administration disputes that characterization of the unwritten agreement, saying that the parties had agreed to fund the entire Commerce, Justice, State and The Judiciary bill only for the first half of FY99, in order to put pressure on both sides to resolve the sampling dispute early next year. The committee-approved bill allocates $952 million for 2000 census activities, about $104 million more than the President had requested. The extra funds must be used to continue preparing for a census that doesn't use sampling methods to count the population. However, only one-half of the funds would be made available initially, to pay for census preparations through March 31, 1999. The Commerce Department said that $476 million would fund 2000 census work only through mid-January. The second half of the allocation would not be made available until the President requests release of the funds and Congress enacts a new bill authorizing the Bureau to spend the remaining $476 million. The language directs Congress to act by March 31 but does not spell out any consequences if Congress and the Administration fail to reach an agreement on releasing the rest of the money. The bill also provides $4 million for the Census Monitoring Board. Rep. Mollohan offered an amendment to remove the restrictions on the full $952 million allocation. The amendment would have allowed the Bureau to continue planning for a census that includes sampling unless the Supreme Court rules that the methods are unconstitutional or unlawful. It also would have required continued planning for a census without statistical methods until the Supreme Court disposed of the two pending legal challenges to the use of sampling in the census. The Mollohan amendment directed the National Academy of Sciences to determine whether the Bureau's 2000 census plan was the most feasible way to produce an accurate count of the population. Critical work to finish compiling the address list (called the Master Address File) starts this summer and continues through 1999. The Bureau also plans to award a contract for questionnaire printing by the end of this year; the contractor must begin work in April to ensure that census forms are ready to be mailed by mid-March of 2000. The full House is tentatively scheduled to take up the Commerce spending bill next week. Rep. Mollohan, the senior Democrat on the appropriations subcommittee that funds the Census Bureau, noted that the President has indicated he will veto the funding bill if the final version still contains the six-month restriction. Recruitment and hiring also addressed by appropriators: The committee adopted a provision sponsored by Rep. Carrie Meek (D-FL) that would allow the recipients of Federal benefits to work as temporary census employees without counting that income in determining their eligibility for those programs. The Meek language was included in a larger amendment offered by Rep. Rogers and accepted by voice vote without discussion. Rep. Meek also criticized the advertising campaign being developed by the New York-based firm of Young & Rubicam, saying it was not effective in reaching minority communities. The report that accompanies the appropriations bill may incorporate Rep. Meek's concerns. Controversy over deleting "real people" from the census continues: Rep. Dan Miller (R-FL), chairman of the House census subcommittee and a member of the appropriations panel, did not, as some observers expected, offer an amendment in today's committee mark-up to prohibit the Census Bureau from subtracting "real people" from the census. Rep. Miller said last week that he plans to introduce such a bill, which his oversight panel could consider without scheduling a hearing to review the issue. The chairman said he does not want the Bureau to throw out forms with data collected from "real people" as part of the plan to eliminate overcounts in the census through the 750,000 household quality-check survey. The Bureau has said that it does not discount any questionnaires collected from actual people except to eliminate duplicates or clearly fraudulent forms. 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>om>. 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.