Senate to Vote on Barring Sampling in Census

The Senate Appropriations Committee voted last week to send the FY '97 Supplemental Spending bill to the full Senate with a provision that would prevent the Census Bureau from using sampling in the 2000 census. Chapter 10, Section 303 of the bill would prohibit the use of sampling in the census and would result in an undercount of Hispanics, other minorities and the poor as has happened in the past.

Following the 1990 census, Congress charged the Census Bureau with developing a census that is more accurate and less expensive. The language in the Supplemental Appropriations Bill would result in just the opposite-a census that is less accurate and more expensive. During the 1990 census, the Hispanic population was undercounted by an estimated 5%. If sampling is prohibited in the 2000 Census, millions of dollars will be misappropriated away from poor, urban, rural and minority areas and toward upper and middle income suburban areas. What's worse is that no one will know how severe the undercount would be because the language prohibits the census from even measuring the undercount for the first time in decades.

Please contact your Senators and urge them to vote for an amendment to strike the language dealing with the census in the Supplemental Appropriations Bill. The Senate will debate the bill on Monday, May 5 and vote on the bill Tuesday, May 6 so you will need to fax your letters or call your Senators' offices in order to influence their vote on this amendment. The Senate switchboard number is (202) 225-3121. Barring the use of sampling in the 2000 census is a bad idea because:

• Sampling is more accurate and less costly. Most experts and census stakeholders agree that the use of sampling, if properly implemented, will improve the accuracy of the census and reduce costs.
• Experts agree that sampling is better. Three panels of experts convened by the National Academy of the Sciences, including one chartered by Congress, have recommended that the Census Bureau use sampling in the 2000 census to save money and improve accuracy. The General Accounting Office supports this recommendation as well. The Commerce Department Inspector General has said that sampling and sampling methods are the only way to eliminate the historic, disproportionate undercount of minorities and the poor.
• The undercount adversely affects poor, urban, rural and minority areas. Sampling in the census would overcome the persistent undercount in Hispanics as well as for other minorities, the poor, and urban and rural areas. One third of the people missed in the 1990 census were in rural areas.
• The provision would prevent the Census Bureau from even measuring the undercount for the first time in decades in order to keep undercounted groups from knowing their true population and to prevent court challenges.
• The provision improperly legislates on an appropriations bill. The Appropriations Committee has not studied this issue at all while the Committee on Governmental Affairs (which oversees the census) has begun a review of the sampling issue and should be allowed to complete their work and determine an appropriate course of action.

Please copy this alert and distribute it to LULAC members in your region.

For further information contact Selena Walsh, League of United Latin American Citizens, 1133 20th St., NW, Suite 750, Washington, DC 20036, (202) 833-6130,