Richard Gephardt: “let me urge Members to vote for this bipartisan amendment, and let me start by saying that the Census Bureau and a…”

“let me urge Members to vote for this bipartisan amendment, and let me start by saying that the Census Bureau and a number of other important objective authorities have supported the targeted use of statistical sampling for the 2000 census to improve accuracy and to eliminate, as best we humanly can, the problem of undercounting. This tool of sampling is to be used through the whole period that we are actually trying to count our citizens. As I understand it, the Census Bureau is intending to have the most aggressive, elaborate, door-to-door, human count that can possibly be made. Everybody wants that; everybody expects that; everybody anticipates that. But what the experts are telling us who are going to do this is that they need statistical sampling as a tool throughout the period so they can target problems and then direct people to go out and make a better count so that we can get the best possible human count we can get at the end of the day. Mr. Chairman, all the scientific evidence points to sampling as the best way to ensure the best count. Leading experts such as the National Academy of Sciences support the use of statistical sampling as the best way. The Department of Justice under Presidents Carter, Bush, and Clinton all issued opinions supporting the constitutionality and legality of using sampling in the census. Every Federal court that has addressed the issue has held that the Constitution and Federal statutes allow sampling.”