Political Quotes

“I rise in support of the Maloney amendment to H.R. 472, the Local Census Quality Control Act. The Maloney amendment would allow local governments to get involved in reviewing census plans in their area in a fashion which will allow the Census Bureau to execute its plan on schedule. The Census Bureau studied its 1990 procedures and have proposed updated methods which will be more accurate and more efficient. The Maloney amendment is compatible with these recommendations, and will allow the Census Bureau to produce the most accurate count possible of American citizens. An accurate count is critical to every state, district, and town in this country--including my own district in Pennsylvania. As my constituents know, an inaccurate count has real effect on real people. In the Norristown Area School District, inaccurate procedures employed during the 1990 census undercounted the number of poor children by 60 percent, dropping the count of impoverished students from 1,375 in 1980 to 541 in 1990. But Norristown administrators experienced a different reality: not 541, but 3,348 kids received free and reduced lunches each day--that's 1 out of every 2 students. This undercount resulted in real budget cuts for Norristown schools: Federal assistance to Norristown dropped each year from $1.4 million in 1992-93 to $652 thousand in 97-98. That's only 47 percent of the original budget--less than half.”