BUSH OFFICIAL TO DECIDE CENSUS SAMPLING ISSUE
By Genaro C. Armas
Associated Press
February 17, 2001
WASHINGTON -- Commerce Secretary Don Evans on Friday stripped the Census
Bureau of the power to decide whether to adjust the 2000 head count to
protect against an undercount of minorities and the poor. Evans said he
would make the politically sensitive decision himself.
The Bush Cabinet member reversed a plan from Bill Clinton's administration
that gave the Census Bureau director and a board of career statisticians the
final say over whether a statistical sampling should be used to adjust the
2000 count.
Evans' ruling returns the decision to the commerce secretary's office, where
"Congress has always intended" the decision be made, Evans spokesman Jim
Dyke said.
Census Bureau officials could not be reached for comment.
Dyke said a committee of Census Bureau staffers--including acting director
William Barron, a career civil servant--must make a recommendation to Evans
by March 1. Evans would then reach a decision within five days.
Preliminary estimates from a survey taken after the 2000 census showed it
missed a smaller percentage of Americans in 2000 than in 1990. Republicans
were especially heartened that estimates showed smaller percentages of
uncounted blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and children--groups traditionally
missed in a census.
But Democrats contend that about 3 million people still could be left out
this year, and asked the Bush administration to leave the final say to the
Census Bureau director.
"By acting to politicize the determination of the accuracy of the census,
the Bush administration has clearly signaled their intention to influence
the final decision for what can only be construed to be motivated by
partisan political gain," said House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt
(D-Mo.).
Evans must decide whether raw data adjusted using sampling will protect
against an undercount, as Democrats and civil rights groups contend.
Republicans, in general, contend that the Constitution calls for an "actual
enumeration" free of statistical adjustment.
The issue has long been controversial in Congress, where Democrats maintain
they could potentially gain seats in the House if the adjusted data were
used to make up for the undercount.
Republicans hold a narrow majority, and the next election will be held after
census figures are used to redraw the boundaries of all but a few of the
nation's 435 congressional districts.
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