From: Census2000 &lt;Census2000(a)ccmc.org&gt; House Fully Funds Remaining Census 2000 Operations, But Some Overseers Concerned About Rush to Completion Plus: House Rejects Effort to Slash Funding for Non-Decennial Programs; Sampling Critics Skeptical of Proposed Commerce Dept. Rule; New Jersey Legislature Stops Work on Anti-Sampling Bill The U.S. House of Representatives gave final approval on Monday to a bill that funds Census 2000 operations for the fiscal year beginning October 1. The House passed the $37.4 billion Commerce, Justice, and State, The Judiciary and Related Agencies appropriations bill (H.R. 4690) by a vote of 214-195 after rejecting an amendment during debate last week that would have reduced funding for non-decennial programs by $40 million. The non-decennial activities include the American Community Survey (ACS), which the Census Bureau is developing as a possible alternative to the traditional census long form. The House-passed version of H.R. 4690 allocates $392.9 million for Census 2000 operations, which include closing down local census offices and data processing centers, analyzing results of the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation (A.C.E.) survey, and releasing population numbers for congressional apportionment and political line-drawing. The allocation, essentially the amount requested by the Clinton Administration, also includes $3.5 million for the eight-member Census Monitoring Board. Funding for all non-decennial programs was set at $275 million, $51 million below the Administration's request. The bill allocates $20 million for the ACS, $5 million below the requested amount. An amendment offered on the House floor last Friday by Rep. Howard Coble (R-NC) would have further reduced funding for activities in the broad Periodic Censuses and Surveys account, with the exception of Census 2000, by $40 million. The Coble amendment sought to increase funding for the Commerce Department's Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) after the appropriations committee cut that agency's budget during its mark-up on June 14. Rep. Coble chairs the Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Courts and Intellectual Property. According to the Census Bureau, the proposed $40 million funding decrease would "curtail" development of the ACS, "shut down the Economic Censuses and Census of Governments," and "cripple the mapping and address listing program that supports all Bureau surveys." The reduction also would force the elimination of 500 positions, the Bureau said, "greatly disrupting the entire Census Bureau including the decennial census" and jeopardizing its ability to transmit redistricting data to the states by the March 31, 2001 legal deadline. The amendment generated significant debate from both Republicans and Democrats. Many legislators who spoke during the debate expressed frustration over being forced to choose between adequate funding to ensure timely processing of patent applications and the Census Bureau's ability to produce reliable demographic and economic data. Reps. Harold Rogers (R-KY) and Jose Serrano (D-NY), chairman and ranking minority member, respectively, of the Commerce appropriations subcommittee, opposed the amendment, as did House Census Subcommittee Chairman Dan Miller (R-FL) and the oversight panel's senior Democrat, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY). The amendment was defeated by a vote of 145-222, with 67 representatives not voting. Congressional oversight of Census 2000 operations continues: The House Subcommittee on the Census continued its oversight of Census 2000 operations at a June 22 hearing in Washington, D.C. Census Bureau Director Kenneth Prewitt told panel members that census takers had completed more than 99 percent of the nonresponse follow-up workload, putting the Bureau on track to finish the second major phase of Census 2000 well ahead of the scheduled July 7th completion date. He cited the Bureau's success in overcoming "obstacles and potential problems," including hiring and retaining enough temporary workers, meeting payroll obligations on time, completing early counting operations on schedule, exceeding the projected mail response rate, accurately scanning and processing over 120 million questionnaires, and providing assistance to the public at walk-in centers, by telephone, and through foreign language forms. The director described special counting efforts that he said contributed to successful follow-up visits to unresponsive homes in historically 'hard-to-enumerate' neighborhoods. Based on data from the 1990 census as well as observations of field staff, the Bureau identified census tracts where Be Counted forms, Questionnaire Assistance Centers, team or blitz numeration, and other "special enumeration tools" might help encourage participation. Dr. Prewitt concluded his remarks by calling Census 2000 "the most open and transparent census in history; every detail has been and is being scrutinized. We welcome that scrutiny because we believe it will dispel any notion that there is or could be any political manipulation of the final results." He pointed to the Bureau's release of its report on the feasibility of issuing statistically corrected census data, as an example of the "spirit of openness." After receiving that report, the Commerce Department published a proposed rule in the June 20 Federal Register that would delegate final authority to the Census Bureau director over the decision on whether to release the adjusted census data next spring. Subcommittee Chairman Dan Miller commended census enumerators "for their hard work and civic duty in helping to count America," but he expressed concern about the early completion of visits to unresponsive households. Referring to the director's earlier references to Census 2000 as "the good census," the chairman said, "[I]t may prove to be the Rushed Census." He cited "numerous" calls to his office from census employees "express[ing] a felling of tremendous pressure to finish ahead of schedule." "Unless the undercount has been eliminated, why are people pulling out of the field before July 7?" he asked. Rep. Carolyn Maloney applauded the Bureau's progress in finishing nonresponse follow-up, commending the Bureau's staff and a cooperative public for "a truly amazing result." She also thanked Chairman Miller for helping to secure full funding for Census 2000 operations over the past year. Dr. Prewitt countered the chairman's criticism of the fast pace of follow-up operations by saying it would cost more money, but not improve the accuracy of the count, to keep knocking on the doors of households that still refused to cooperate after six attempts to collect information from the residents. Rep. Maloney said evaluations of the 1990 census showed that 70 percent of the people missed lived in households that were counted (known as "within household misses"). Sampling controversy renewed over proposed Commerce Department rule: At the June 22 hearing, Chairman Miller also strongly criticized the proposed rule delegating authority over the adjustment decision to the Bureau director. He called the idea a "ridiculous proposal" that "doesn't make the decision to release manipulated numbers any more palatable or less political." The congressman said the proposed rule was made public right before Commerce Secretary William Daley announced he would leave his post to head up Vice President Albert Gore's presidential campaign. Noting that the Bureau director is a political appointee, Rep. Miller questioned Dr. Prewitt about political contributions the director might have made to Democratic candidates. Dr. Prewitt said he had not made contributions to any political candidates since his appointment as census director. The chairman suggested that the Bureau seek an independent, external review of the adjusted census numbers before deciding whether to release them. Referring to the proposed committee of senior Census Bureau staff that would advise the director on the adjustment decision, the chairman said, "This is not public scrutiny - it's a whitewash." Rep. Maloney said she strongly supports the proposed delegation rule and noted that the director is the only political appointee among the Bureau's 6,000 permanent employees. "I believe the Secretary has wisely decided to try and take the politics out of this decision by leaving it up to the professionals at the Census Bureau," she said. Rep. Maloney pointed out that former Commerce Secretary Robert Mosbacher decided not to statistically adjust the 1990 census counts, despite a recommendation to do so from then-Census Bureau Director Barbara Bryant, before resigning from his position to join President George Bush's reelection campaign. Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN), a subcommittee member, said the proposed rule would give the public the mistaken impression that the Census Bureau director is less political than the Secretary of Commerce. "We're all politicians here," the congressman said. Dr. Prewitt expressed frustration that the proposed delegation of authority had sparked renewed partisan controversy. "Nothing is more dangerous than to suggest that national numbers are subject to political manipulation," the director told panel members. He suggested that members of Congress were concerned about how census data will be used, while the Census Bureau is only interested in how to collect the data. The latter, Dr. Prewitt said, is determined without regard to politics or partisanship. State legislative activities update: The New Jersey Senate committee abruptly postponed a hearing on a bill to bar the use of statistically corrected census numbers for congressional and state legislative redistricting, delaying further action on the measure indefinitely. The state Assembly, voting along party lines, approved the bill (A. 1682) on June 5. The Senate State Government Committee had scheduled a hearing to review the bill on June 22. Local newspapers reported that Governor Christine Todd Whitman (R) asked Republican legislators to postpone further action on the bill until federal courts could review a similar measure enacted in Virginia earlier in the year. The New Jersey Star Ledger quoted Gov. Whitman's spokesperson as saying, "We've asked the Senate to hold off on this bill until there is a clear road map from the federal courts. It doesn't make sense to go forward with all the trial and tribulation and argument until we know what's going to happen in [the Virginia] case." Virginia is one of sixteen states required under the federal Voting Rights Act to obtain approval from the U.S. Department of Justice for any changes to election law. The state is pursuing an alternative "pre-clearance" process by asking a three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to approve the new law prohibiting the use of adjusted numbers for redistricting purposes. Last week, ten Democratic state legislators opposed to the anti-sampling law sought to intervene in the case, saying use of unadjusted census data for redistricting would violate the Voting Rights Act by failing to account for racial minorities likely to be missed by the census. In addition, the Justice Department asked the federal court to put off a decision in the Virginia case until the Census Bureau releases detailed population counts to the states beginning next February or March. Questions about the information contained in this News Alert may be directed to Terri Ann Lowenthal at 202/484-2270 or, by e-mail at terriann2k(a)aol.com <mailto:terriann2k@aol.com>. For copies of previous News Alerts and other information, use our web site www.census2000.org <http://www.census2000.org>. Please direct all requests to receive News Alerts, and all changes in address/phone/fax/e-mail, to the Census 2000 Initiative at Census2000(a)ccmc.org <mailto:Census2000@ccmc.org> or 202/326-8700. 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