The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“WARNINGS OF A FAILED DECENNIAL CENSUS” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Commerce was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H2379-H2380 on April 28, 1998.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
WARNINGS OF A FAILED DECENNIAL CENSUS
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Deal of Georgia). Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Miller) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Los Angeles Times ran a story about a census in California. But the story had nothing to do with the Census 2000 dress rehearsal going on now in Sacramento. It concerned a census conducted by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works, a census that counts bats. That is right, bats. On May 17, a team of biologists and a couple of dozen volunteers will try to count every bat living underneath three wooden bridges in Topanga Canyon in California. Let me quote from the article:
Census takers, who range in age from 7 to 70, will each be assigned a section of a bridge. With a Tally Wacker in hand, a clicker used to count quickly with the thumb, they will attempt to count the bats as they emerge from their roosts at dusk. Participants will ``have to be in place, sitting very quietly before dusk, so they don't disturb the bats,'' says biologist Rosi Dagit. Dagit says bats are very sensitive to noise and won't fly if they suspect they are being watched by humans.
The article concludes: ``Census takers will have to be fast.''
Mr. Speaker, as chairman of the Subcommittee on the Census, I am tempted here to start making jokes about the batty census the Clinton Administration wants to conduct in the year 2000 using statistical sampling, but I will refrain. I will just say that if we can put that much effort into actually counting bats, I think it is a good lighthearted example to show that let us just count all Americans when we do the census in the year 2000.
Mr. Speaker, let me talk about a more serious subject, and that is the continued stonewalling by the Clinton Administration regarding the 2000 census. The latest example is the Census Monitoring Board. Last year Congress and the Administration agreed to appoint a new oversight board. The agreement was for four congressional appointments and four White House appointments.
Speaker Gingrich and Majority Leader Lott made their appointments in February. But the board members have not been able to hire staff and start oversight because the White House took its own sweet time in making appointments. In fact, I had to send a letter on Friday to get the White House to finally follow through with the appointments last night. I would like to submit my letter for the Record.
The text of the letter is as follows:
Congress of the United States, House of Representatives,
Committee on Government Reform and Oversight,
Washington, DC, April 24, 1998.Hon. William J. Clinton,President of the United States, The White House, Washington,
DC.
Dear Mr. President: I am writing to express my extreme disappointment with the apparent lack of serious interest your Administration is displaying towards the oversight of the 2000 Census.
You are required pursuant to Sec. 210 of Public Law 105-119, the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State Appropriations Act of 1998, to appoint four members to the Census Monitoring Board to observe and monitor all aspects of the preparation and implementation of the 2000 decennial census. These appointments were due to be made within 60 days of the enactment of P.L. 105-119, which you signed into law on November 26, 1997.
On April 6, 1998, The White House Office of the Press Secretary released a two-page document which stated: ``The President today appointed Tony Coehlo, Dr. Everett M. Ehrlich, Gilbert F. Casellas, and Lorraine Green as members of the U.S. Census Monitoring Board.'' I have attached a copy of this announcement for your reference. The news of the appointment of these individuals was subsequently widely reported by a substantial number of news organizations.
Several times after this April 6th announcement, including as recently as today, my staff and counsels have reported to me that in numerous telephone conversations, both the Office of the Executive Clerk and the Office of Presidential Personnel have denied to them that you have officially appointed either these or any other individuals to the Census Monitoring Board. Congressional Census Monitoring Board Co-Chairman J. Kenneth Blackwell has also been told that no appointments have been made, frustrating his efforts to convene a meeting of the Board to begin their work. These statements are in direct contradiction to your earlier announcement.
You can understand my frustration at this startling turn of events. It is completely irresponsible for the Administration to further delay the first meeting of the Board, since you are undoubtedly aware that the Board must first meet and approve its ground rules before oversight activities can begin and professional staff can be hired. Thus, every day you delay in making your appointments, you effectively stonewall independent oversight and review of the 2000 census.
The mixed and conflicting messages from your Administration on the Board appointments create the appearance of an attempt to delay or prevent oversight of the controversial Census 2000 plan. The Commerce Department Inspector General and the General Accounting Office have repeatedly warned us that the decennial census is at high risk for failure. The critical Census Dress Rehearsal began on April 18th, yet the Board is unable to perform any oversight until your appointments have been made. I would hope you agree with me that without this intensive oversight by the Board, the American people cannot have confidence that the demonstrations of the Bureau's complicated and complex statistical methodologies have been done in an open and fair environment.
The American people deserve a census that is honest and reliable. This latest episode increases the risk of a failed census in 2000, one which will cost taxpayers billions and produce worthless results. I strongly urge you to immediately rectify this situation by confirming your appointments to the Census Monitoring Board and allowing them to get on with the very serious work that await them.
Sincerely,
Dan Miller,
Chairman, Subcommittee on the Census.
P.S. I strongly urge you to also move quickly to nominate a new Director of the Census Bureau.
After receiving the letter we heard last night that the President finally made his appointments.
Mr. Speaker, I should not have to send letters to the White House to get the President to comply with the law. The mere fact that the letter had to be sent reflects poorly on the White House. The fact that the dress rehearsal has already started before the President made his appointments reflects poorly on the White House. Reports that the co-
chairman, Tony Coehlo, is planning on leaving the country before the board has a chance to meet reflects poorly on the White House.
Fairly or unfairly, the cavalier attitude from the Clinton Administration creates the appearance of an attempt to delay or prevent oversight of the controversial 2000 census plan. The Commerce Department's Inspector General and the General Accounting Office have repeatedly warned us that the decennial census is at a high risk for failure.
The critical census dress rehearsals began on April 18, yet the board has been unable to perform any oversight. Without this intensive oversight by the board, the American people cannot be confident that the demonstrations of the Bureau's complicated and complex statistical methodologies have been done in an open and fair environment.
Now we have strong signals that the stonewalling will continue. My friend and respected colleague from New York, the ranking member of the subcommittee, is suggesting hiring practices for the oversight board. Despite the fact that the law says that, ``the board may appoint and fix the pay of such additional personnel as the executive director for each of the two parts of the group considers appropriate,'' there is now a suggestion that both sides have to approve the hiring of each other's persons. That is just outrageous. I do not tell the minority what staff to hire and they do not tell the majority what staff to hire. To propose that is just outrageous.
Unfortunately, the helpful suggestions of the minority do not stop there. They go on to demand that employees of the board be forbidden to do any work unless both sides approve, that the expenditure of any funds by the board be forbidden unless both sides approve, crippling their ability to do even simple things like traveling and cutting monthly paychecks. And, most shockingly of all, they demand that board members and employees forfeit their constitutional right to free speech while in the employment of the board.
Mr. Coehlo certainly does not need the advice of congressional Democrats on how to stonewall oversight, so my Democratic colleagues should not be concerned with trying to interfere with the oversight board's activities and dictate their rules.
Once again this strikes me more as an attempt to delay oversight. Rather than getting down to serious oversight, the Democrats now want to fight about hiring a staff and play games with the rules. That of course will take time, time that we do not have because the White House took so long to appoint its board members. I understand the game that is being played, and frankly it is sad.
The American people deserve a census that is honest and reliable. This ongoing saga of the delay at the oversight board increases the risk of a failed census in 2000, a census which will cost taxpayers billions and produce worthless results. I strongly urge the President to take the warnings of a failed census seriously and direct his administration to start cooperating and listening to Congress.
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