Sean Patrick Maloney: “while I am extremely sympathetic to the cause my good friend from New York supports, I cannot support this amendment.…”

“while I am extremely sympathetic to the cause my good friend from New York supports, I cannot support this amendment. Taking money from the census planning will cripple that effort and have consequences that will damage the census throughout this decade. All of our representation in this Congress and our local and State bodies is based on census numbers. The funding that we receive in localities across this Nation are based on census numbers. Working to make it as accurate as possible is absolutely fundamental to the fairness of our democracy. The 2000 census was the most expensive in history and was not very much more accurate than the 1990 census. Demographic analysis failed to capture the growth in Hispanic migration and, as a result, was of little use in measuring the accuracy of the census. The census annual estimates of the population were off by almost 8 million in 2000. These and many other errors were the result of a failure of Congress to adequately fund the planning for the 2000 census. The census is an enormous management undertaking. It is the largest peacetime mobilization the government undertakes. The census requires planning to mobilize hundreds of thousands of workers for a few weeks. In 2000, it took 500 offices and 500,000 workers. The Census Bureau opens those offices, hires a staff, and closes those offices all in a few weeks. Over 100 million forms have to be printed, labeled, and mailed.”