David Thomas: “I have listened to and participated in this Census debate now several times. I have to say that, as someone who believes…”

“I have listened to and participated in this Census debate now several times. I have to say that, as someone who believes that the arguments that we make on our side of the aisle are valid and felt strongly, this gentleman is getting a little tired of the way in which the minority seems to argue this point and others. A little truth in packaging: The idea that the amendment of the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Miller) somehow seeks to undermine the Census process by allowing locals to review what the Census does. Locals, for example, in El Paso, Texas, who are 72 percent Hispanic, locals in Gary, Indiana, who are 86 percent black should not have the right, the minority says, to examine what the Census Bureau has done because they believe Republicans are racist in the way in which we are making the Census arguments; that in fact the amendment of the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Maloney) involves the locals in a responsible way. "Amendment in the nature of a substitute offered by Mrs. Maloney of New York. 'This act may be cited as the Local Participation in the Census Act.' ''. Do Members want truth in packaging? Do Members know what Local Participation in the Census Act means?”