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Volume 10 No. 2 CONGRESSIONAL UPDATE
The Question of Who Will Be Counted in the Census 2000 Is a Major Civil Rights Issue
Congressional Update: The 105th Congress Adjourns Leaving Dispute Over Scientific Sampling Still Unresolved
Prior to adjournment, the 105th Congress approved an omnibus spending package totaling $487 billion that included more money for the Census Bureau's Census 2000 preparations. The legislation, signed by the President, allocates $1.027 billion for 2000 census activities for fiscal year 1999 (FY'99), $179 million more than the Bureau's request of $848 million. The majority of the additional funds, $104 million, were provided for improving the process of compiling the master address lists - a critical component of the Census Bureau's plan.
Thirteen different appropriations bills fund the Federal government's activities each year. Funding for the Census Bureau falls under the Commerce, State, Justice and the Federal Judiciary appropriations bill (CSJ). While appropriation bills usually are funded through the end of the Federal government's calendar year (which ends September 30st), the FY'99 CSJ bill is funded only through June 15, 1999. If Congress and the President have not reached an agreement on census methods and funding levels by that date, funding would stop not only for census activities but for all the activities funded under the Commerce, State, Justice appropriations bill. The House had attempted to prevent the Census from using sampling for any purposes.
Prior to reaching agreement on the omnibus bill, House Republicans and the Clinton Administration were gridlocked over the Census Bureau's plan to use sampling. The House-passed version of the FY'99 CSJ appropriations bill, H.R. 4276, funded 2000 census activities only through March 31, 1999. Only half of the $952 million allocated in the sub-committee approved bill would have been available for the Census Bureau to spend through that date. The bill withheld the second half of the allocation until the Administration requested release of the funds and Congress enacted a new bill authorizing the Bureau to spend the remaining $476 million. President Clinton had vowed to veto the legislation if it contained any funding restriction when it reached his desk.
Many census stakeholders believed the limitations placed on census funds in the House bill would have jeopardized the Census Bureau's preparatory activities in 1999. In a September 8, 1998 letter to the House of Representatives a group of mayors and other elected officials, children advocates, religious leaders, scientists, educators, and civil rights advocates called on Congress to allow the Census Bureau to proceed with its planned Census 2000 activities next year with no threat of an interruption in funding. The letter called on the President to veto the Commerce appropriations bill for fiscal year 1999 if it restricted funding for the Bureau's decennial census activities.
The battle over the FY'99 spending bill represented just the latest in numerous census-related battles that took place during the 105th Congress. A re-cap of those earlier battles follows:
  
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