Sean Patrick Maloney: “sending the census sampling issue before the Supreme Court certainly sounds like a righteous compromise, but beware of a…”

“sending the census sampling issue before the Supreme Court certainly sounds like a righteous compromise, but beware of a wolf in sheep's clothing. The Supreme Court will decide in favor of sampling, but while we are waiting as long as a year, the stalling will kill sampling for the 2000 census. Indecision will become the decision. Missing the Census Bureau deadlines for as long as a year means certain death for a fair and accurate census. There has been a great deal of misinformation that has been bandied about, and I would like to set the record straight on the Census Bureau's plan. What the Census Bureau plans to do will be the largest peacetime mobilization ever. Ninety percent of the people will be counted using traditional methods. People will be contacted four times through the mail. They will be contacted by phone for the first time. Community outreach will include forms that are in post offices, stores, churches, malls, and TV ads are in the works. Then the Bureau will begin to knock on doors, but we know that many of these doors will remain shut because people do not open their doors to strangers, they are not there, they are at work. And only for the last 10 percent, for those people who could not be reached by mail, phone, a knock on the door, or through the media, only for that last 10 percent will statistical sampling be used. Mr. Chairman, we know that some people are more likely to be missed than others.”