In the first hearing since a federal panel ruled a Democratic- backed census sampling plan to be illegal, House Government Reform Census Subcommittee Chairman Dan Miller, R-Fla., pressed the administration Wednesday on what the Census Bureau is doing to plan for a traditional census.
"I still don't see a willingness by the administration to allow the Congress to play a role," Miller said.
A three-judge panel decided Aug. 24 to throw out the sampling plan on grounds it violated federal law. The panel did not rule on sampling's constitutionality.
Acting Census Bureau Director James Holmes told the subpanel his agency has "20 teams who are working very, very hard" to develop a census plan by November that would not involve the controversial sampling technique, which entails estimating 10 percent of the population based on a 90 percent sample.
Holmes rejected criticism from Miller that the administration is not adhering to a bipartisan agreement for the Census Bureau to prepare for a "dual track" census until the Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of sampling, presumably early next year.
"I think it's unfair to say we have been less than sincere about planning for a dual census," Holmes said.
President Clinton has threatened to veto the Commerce-Justice- State spending bill if it includes a House provision that provides fiscal 1999 census funding for just six months.
Robert Shapiro, Commerce undersecretary for economic affairs, testified that a continuing resolution for the Census Bureau prorated at the FY98 funding levels would be insufficient and could force the firing of 22,000 temporary employees.
Shapiro also said if the Census Bureau were funded for only half a year, it would exhaust half those funds in late January 1999, potentially delaying census work for two months.
Miller said Republicans are "willing to work on the cash flow issues," but suggested Clinton would "use his veto to distract the country" from his legal problems. "These are strange times at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and any diversion from the president's legal and moral dilemmas is probably welcomed," Miller said.
Subcommittee ranking member Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., objected to what she called "cheap political rhetoric" from Republicans who claimed Clinton is trying to create a diversion.
"There is no policy distraction. The president has consistently stood up for an accurate count," Maloney said. "We know the 1990 census was wrong, that people were missed, and that most of the people missed were minorities."
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