Jeff Miller: “last evening, a meeting was held in my office with two senior Democrats to discuss the issue of the 2000 Census. It is…”

“last evening, a meeting was held in my office with two senior Democrats to discuss the issue of the 2000 Census. It is unfortunate that not only was the confidence of this meeting broken, but my position was misrepresented. Obviously, there are those who would betray a confidence for what they believe to be a short-term political gain. Let me make clear what transpired at the meeting and what my position is on the 2000 Census. The position of these Democrats was that they wanted to remove Congress from the decision-making process for the 2000 Census. I disagree. At no time did I say that there would not be funding for the 2000 Census. As I have said publicly before, the one thing we can all be sure of is there will be a 2000 Census. What I did say is the simple fact that if the Supreme Court might rule that sampling is legal, it does not automatically mean there will be sampling in the 2000 Census. Let me explain, as I did last night. The Supreme Court is going to rule on whether or not sampling is legal or constitutional, not if the Clinton sampling plan will work. That issue is very much debatable. In fact, even the National Academy of Sciences which has endorsed the concept of sampling has not endorsed this plan.”