Sean Patrick Maloney: “Mr. Speaker, the Maloney amendment enhances the role of local government in perfecting the census address list, while…”

“Mr. Speaker, the Maloney amendment enhances the role of local government in perfecting the census address list, while leaving the details to Census Bureau professionals. The Census Bureau Director Ken Prewitt has said that without the Maloney amendment, this bill, the Local Census Quality Control Act, will make the census 2000 neither timely, effective or cost efficient. It disrupts the Bureau's effort to complete a fair and accurate census on time. It prevents the use of modern statistical methods to count Americans that are missed by the traditional head count. Statistical methods cut the costs, provide for a more accurate count of all Americans, and we have to keep in mind in this process that in 1990 that census missed 8.4 million people. This cannot happen again. Why is the census important? Why is statistical sampling important? Because we are talking about the distribution of billions of Federal dollars; road improvements, medicaid, child care, community development block grants, foster care grants. This is not a political issue. The census count should reflect the population of this great country of ours. Let us have an accurate count. Let us have local government involved. Let us support the Maloney amendment.”