Congressional Record—House H1990
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H1990 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD Ð HOUSE April 10, 2000 CENSUS DAY PLUS 10 ceived a detailed list of the questions proud to represent. The editorial is as The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under to be asked, including a description of follows: the Speaker's announced policy of Jan- the need for the asking of it, along STAND UP AND BE COUNTED uary 6, 1999, the gentlewoman from with the specific legal requirements That's the slogan of Census 2000, and no- where is that cry more urgent than in New New York (Mrs. MALONEY) is recog- supporting it. Notification of Congress is required York. Last time aroundÐ10 years agoÐNew nized for 60 minutes as the designee of Yorkers sat down. There was an undercount. the minority leader. by title 13 for a very good reason, to prevent the very situation we face And the state lost out on everything from Mrs. MALONEY of New York. Mr. political representation to new schools. New Speaker, this is census day plus 10. My today, a census effort at risk because York, particularly New York City, must not message to the American people is, if Members of Congress simply do not let this happen again. they have not already filled out their know or do not care about the impor- The filing deadline came and went April 1. form, please do so now and mail it in. tance of the census data. But the ``Be counted'' Web site doesn't shut down until tomorrow. So if you haven't re- Be part of this great civic ceremony. Members of Congress received this information with all of the questions in turned your census form, take a few minutes As of today, over 61 percent of Ameri- (or a few seconds, if you have the eight-ques- cans have responded to the census, 1997 and 1998. I know that all of the tion short form) and do so. Now. with 39 percent to go. This is a criti- Members who are complaining about And, please, try not to get your dander up cally important milestone for the 2000 the census got a copy. Did they not about how nosy some of the questions seem Census, and I am extremely encouraged read their mail? The time for input on to be. Answers on how you get to work and what time you leave each morning, for exam- by the American people's effort and by the questions was then, not now when they will do more harm than good. ple, can be used by local officials for highway the Census Bureau's transparent tab- and mass-transit improvements. Nobody's ulation efforts. Just months ago, the Even last week, the Republican lead- tracking your movement. Other answers will General Accounting Office warned that ership convened a press conference sup- aid in planning for health, housing, edu- the initial response rate for the 2000 posedly in support of the census. But cation, employment, police and so forth. As Census might peak at 61 percent. Well, they went on to urge Americans to for those racial-identification categories, with 8 days still to spare, the 2000 Cen- skip questions they were uncomfort- just follow the Census Bureau's advice: Put down whatever race or ethnicity you identify sus has reached this point and forms able with. Maybe the Republican lead- ership should be reminded that the with. It's simply a part of drawing an accu- continue to flow in daily. rate population profile in this multicultural I am extremely heartened by the re- questions asked by the census rep- nation. sponse thus far, and tonight I say to resent a balance between the needs of So far, returns here are hovering about the remaining 39 percent, please com- our Nation's communities and the need 55%Ðwith some areas (like central Brook- plete your forms. Do it today. Put it in to keep the time and effort required to lyn, with a dismal 37%) considerably lower. complete the form to a minimum. Only A study by Price Waterhouse Coopers after the mail. As always, this is our main the 1990 census determined that New York message. Fill out your form today. information required by Congress to State was undercounted by 277,000 resi- Unfortunately, we have reached 61 manage or evaluate programs is col- dentsÐ245,000 of them in New York City. percent despite the amazing comments lected by the census. That cost the city three Assembly seats, a of some of my Republican colleagues Federal and State funds for schools, state Senate seat and half a congressional and even Members of the Republican employment services, housing assist- seat. As Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D±Queens), the leadership. With 39 percent of the ance, road construction, day care fa- cilities, hospitals, emergency services, ranking member of the House census sub- American people still not heard from, committee put it: ``It's your future, don't we have Members of Congress who programs for seniors, and much more leave it blank.'' are distributed based on census figures. should all know better telling the Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield to Also, the Census Bureau uses data ac- American people that the census is op- the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. quired from the long form to establish tional. We have Members of Congress SCHAKOWSKY), an outstanding leader the baseline for many of the economic saying that they, and I quote, ``believe and actually a new Member of Con- reports they release year-round, in- in voluntarily cooperating,'' end quote, gress, representing the City of Chicago. cluding data on the Consumer Price with the government; but beyond that She has been very active on the Sub- Index and unemployment. Without ac- they will not follow the law. Since committee on Census and has worked curate data, we would be forced to when did following the law in this very hard to bring up participation. country become a voluntary, optional manage our economic policies with Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, I thing? even less information than we cur- would like to thank the gentlewoman rently have available. b 1930 from New York for her tremendous We should remember that the Census leadership on assuring a complete Others have compared the long form Bureau has gone to great efforts to count of all Americans. to a college exam where some ques- make both the short and long forms as I wish I could be as optimistic. Unfor- tions can be skipped. Is it because some brief as possible. The 2000 Census short tunately, in the city of Chicago, we are people do not know the answers? I cer- form contains eight questions, down 10th out of the 10 largest cities in the tainly hope not. Do they want partici- from nine in 1990. The 2000 Census long response to the census so far. My hope pation, or do they want to make par- form contains 53 questions, down from is that all responsible elected leaders ticipation optional? 57 in 1990, the shortest long form in will be encouraging people from our Last week, Census Director Ken decades. States, from our cities and commu- Prewitt testified that the initial re- The only new question in the census, nities to fill out that census form. sponse rate for the long form has been which was added with my support as I have heard a lot of political pan- almost 12 percent below the response part of welfare reform, asked for infor- dering, we all have in our days, but rate for the households receiving the mation on grandparents as care givers. rarely have I heard anything quite as short form. This is almost double the I am a bit confused, too, because the irresponsible as the trashing that is differential from the 1990 census and same people who today are making going on of the census long form. One could seriously threaten the accuracy such a fuss over the long form just 6 would think that some of those elected of the final count. months ago tried to add a question to officials who are doing it, Members of What is really disheartening is the the short form which everyone has to this body on the Republican side of the fact that most of the questions on the complete. aisle who are doing that, one would long form have been around for dec- I have a series of editorials from think that they had never seen that ades. They were part of the Bush and around the country urging Americans form before. Reagan census. Even more astonishing to stand up and be counted for their As the gentlewoman from New York about this new-found concern about communities, for their representation, (Mrs. MALONEY) pointed out, every sin- the census is that, over 2 years ago, the for their distribution of Federal funds. gle Member was able to scrutinize content of the long and short forms, I would like to put in the RECORD an every single question. As a con- while they were being finalized, abso- editorial from the Daily News from sequence, we came up with a form, a lutely every Member of Congress re- New York City, the city that I am long form that is, in fact, shorter than VerDate 20-MAR-2000 03:28 Apr 11, 2000 Jkt 079060 PO 00000 Frm 00030 Fmt 4634 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\K10AP7.098 pfrm02 PsN: H10PT1 April 10, 2000 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD Ð HOUSE H1991 it was in 1990 and adds only one ques- tax dollars to Washington, what do I tant to my community of Norwalk and tion.