Sean Patrick Maloney: “we have a serious problem in America today that might seem somewhat paranormal. It might be something we would see on…”

“we have a serious problem in America today that might seem somewhat paranormal. It might be something we would see on ``Ripley's Believe it or Not'' or maybe ``The X Files.'' Ten million Americans have become invisible. And even more will disappear if this Congress fails to act. I am talking about the 1990 census. That is when ten million people were not counted, they were simply overlooked. It was as if the population of Michigan or Ohio simply fell off the map. Many of those who were missed are people who most need the things that being counted in the census brings, representation in government and inclusion in government's Federal funding formulas. The 1990 census was the first to be worse than the census before it, and the difference between the undercount for whites and minorities was the worst ever recorded. About 4 rac{1}{2} percent of all African Americans were missed, as were 1 in 20 Latinos, 1 in 14 children, and 1 in 10 black males. But the problem does not end with the undercount. In 1990, over 6 million people were counted more than once and most of them were white. That makes the undercount even more unfair to minorities and poor people, because not only are they missed, but their proportional representation, the basis for House seats and Federal dollars, is further diminished by double-counting. The 1990 census cost 20 percent more than the 1980 census and was 33 percent less accurate.”