Jeff Miller: “I want to first commend the President for proposing his tax relief package for permanent relief for the American people.…”

“I want to first commend the President for proposing his tax relief package for permanent relief for the American people. Everybody who pays taxes gets tax relief. They have lowered the lowest rate, from 15 percent to 10 percent. That is going to help real working people in America. But, Mr. Speaker, I am here to talk about the Census, because I feel it is important to place in the record some facts regarding the 2000 Census that some of us may have forgotten over the last several days as my colleagues on the other side try to tear down the Census head count in order to build it up with a statistical adjustment. What seems to be forgotten is how good the 2000 Census really was. The Census Bureau announced that compared to the last Census, the undercount of African Americans may have been cut in half. The undercount of Hispanics also was cut by more than half. The undercount of American Indians was reduced by more than two-thirds, and the elderly and children have never been counted so well. The preceding Congress appropriated an unprecedented $6.5 billion for the Census effort. Let us take a moment to see what the American people received for their tax dollars. This 2000 Census reversed a three-decade drop in the questionnaire mail back response rate. The 2000 Census reached more Americans, including those living in the hardest to count communities, than ever before.”