Government Executive Magazine - 9/8/00 Dems say GOP plays politics with census oversight

House Democrats Wednesday called on House Government Reform Census Subcommittee Chairman Dan Miller, R-Fla., to lighten up on his oversight of the 2000 decennial census, charging Republicans have used frequent investigations to try to discredit bureau plans to use controversial statistical sampling methods.

Subcommittee ranking member Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., said Miller has distracted the bureau with nearly 100 requests for detailed information, for what she said were ultimately political reasons.

"I really don't think that these requests have much to do with achieving a more fair and accurate census. Instead, they aim to slow down and disrupt the process, to prevent an accurate count by any means necessary," Maloney said.

Miller responded with a three-page letter to Maloney, defending his panel's oversight work. "It would be irresponsible to write the bureau a $6.5 billion dollar check to conduct the census and turn our backs, as you would have us do," Miller wrote.

Census Bureau Director Kenneth Prewitt said Tuesday that although the oversight of various entities had occupied as much as a third of his time, he welcomed the scrutiny because it built confidence in the census.