Jeff Miller: “this week we will be debating the appropriation for the Year 2000 Decennial Census. The census is something that is…”

“this week we will be debating the appropriation for the Year 2000 Decennial Census. The census is something that is required by our Constitution and is very fundamental to our entire democratic system of government, because most elected officials in America are dependent on an accurate census to be conducted. Unfortunately, the 2000 Census has become politically involved, because President Clinton has decided to radically change the way the census is conducted, and for the first time in the history of this country, going back to Jefferson when he conducted the first census, we are not going to attempt to count everyone. I think it would be helpful, as we begin this debate this week, to understand the Clinton budget plan and what is traditionally used where we count everybody in the census. Under the Clinton plan, as designed, and it is an interesting theory, questionnaires will be mailed out in the year April of 2000 and be mailed back in. The expectation is that we will get maybe 65 percent response rate, though that is in question because when the American people realize that we are not going to count everybody, that we are going to use polling and sampling, the response rate may be significantly affected. But let us hope they get a 65 percent response rate.”