Elijah Cummings: “Mr. Speaker, the gentleman who just spoke quoted Mayor Archer of Detroit. Let us hear the rest of the story. Mayor…”

“Mr. Speaker, the gentleman who just spoke quoted Mayor Archer of Detroit. Let us hear the rest of the story. Mayor Archer said, and I quote, ``This bill prevents Census counts from being tracked for the undercount by April 1, 2001, which is critical for distribution of Federal funds. I cannot support H.R. 472 in its current form.'' Going on, we have all agreed that the last Census was inundated with millions of errors. It is our duty to fix this problem. I am dismayed that H.R. 472, the Post Census Local Review Act, is still being considered as a solution to the miscount. The bill will continue a thoughtless practice of requiring the Census Bureau to set aside 9 unnecessary weeks after the field work is done to review the count of local addresses a second time. Most mayors who participated in this program in 1990 thought it was a disaster. Why are Republicans pushing to repeat the same mistakes? As a lawmaker, I have a responsibility to focus my energy on the impact this legislation will have on the people whom I am accountable to. As a result of the 1990 Census, 21,000 of my constituents were excluded from Federal funds for health care, education, transportation, economic development, and even child care. This must not happen again.”