Patsy T. Mink: “I rise in firm opposition to a ban in the fiscal year 1997 Supplemental Appropriations Conference Report that disallows…”

“I rise in firm opposition to a ban in the fiscal year 1997 Supplemental Appropriations Conference Report that disallows the use of statistical sampling in the 200 census. We must not dictate to the experts in the U.S. Census Bureau how they are to conduct this most important, Constitution mandated count of our population. Furthermore, this ban would ignore the need to restore accuracy to the census by accounting for groups grossly undercounted in the last decennial census--minorities and low-income individuals. The bill language states, ``the proposed use of statistical sampling by the Bureau of the Census exposes taxpayers to the unacceptable risk of an inaccurate, invalid, and unconstitutional census.'' Rather, a ban on the use of sampling poses this unacceptable risk and increases the cost to taxpayers for the 2000 census. All evidence reviewed from the 1990 census clearly demonstrates the inaccuracy of a persistent undercount. The Census Bureau acknowledges that this last decennial count failed to include more than 4 million residents--the highest undercount ever recorded. These included a disproportionate number of racial and ethnic minorities in this country. Hundreds of thousands of Asian-Pacific-Americans were not counted by census, at an estimated rate of 2.3 percent. For Hispanics this rate was 5.0 percent and for African-Americans, 4.4 percent.”