Rubén Hinojosa: “Our Nation must have a fair and accurate census in the year 2000. In my State of Texas, the 1990 census resulted in the…”

“Our Nation must have a fair and accurate census in the year 2000. In my State of Texas, the 1990 census resulted in the second highest undercount of any State. Not only in 1990 but for a full 10 years after that, almost half a million Texans have been inadequately represented in their government and received only a fraction of the Federal funds that they were due. The undercount meant that the State of Texas alone was deprived of over $1 billion in Federal funds. As the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gonzalez) said earlier, an equally inaccurate census in the year 2000 could result in the loss of over $2 billion to our State. Nationwide, the Commerce Department estimates that several million people were overlooked. While these figures represent the disempowerment of a shocking 1.6 percent of the total American population, the figures for minorities are significantly worse. A full 5 percent of Hispanic Americans were simply overlooked, 4.4 percent of African Americans were never counted, 4.5 percent of Native Americans were ignored. These communities of minority Americans have been denied the representation that is their birthright. Representation in American government cannot be contingent on the affluence of your neighborhood, nor the color of your skin. This is a sanctioned disempowerment of American minorities and cannot be allowed to continue.”