The results of a dress rehearsal for the 2000 census indicate that the actual census is likely to be a success, said Commerce Secretary William Daley at a press conference Wednesday.
"This dress rehearsal demonstrates that there should be no controversy over the design for the census," he said. "We have a superior management team and our operational expertise in the Census Bureau has been once again confirmed. They are ready and they are able to make the Census 2000 a tremendous success."
Daley said the dress rehearsal, which included tests in Sacramento, Calif., Columbia, S.C. and Menominee, Wis., was proceeding on schedule, on budget and "has met a very long series of challenges."
The Census Bureau has encountered a series of setbacks in preparing for the 2000 census. Members of Congress have threatened to hold up funding for the census if bureau officials follow through on a plan to use controversial statistical sampling techniques. And the bureau has been without a director since Martha Farnsworth Riche resigned in January. James F. Holmes, a 30-year veteran of the bureau, is serving as acting director. President Clinton nominated Kenneth Prewitt, head of the Social Science Research Council in New York, to be director in June, but Prewitt hasn't had a confirmation hearing.
The General Accounting Office reported in April that the dress rehearsal raised "further concerns about the high risks of a failed census." In February 1997, GAO designated the 2000 census as being at high risk for wasted expenditures and unsatisfactory results.
But Census officials say that as the dress rehearsal enters its final stages, things are looking up. Daley, joined by Holmes at the press conference, said that all three sites improved upon the performance of the 1988 dress rehearsal sites.
Holmes attributed the rehearsal's success to good planning and better-than-expected recruitment of enumerators. The bureau conducted independent labor studies to determine how to attract enumerators and provided the public with a toll-free number to request assistance in answering the census forms.
"We've really met or exceeded our expectations," Holmes said. He added, however, that it is too early to get an accurate opinion on how well sampling techniques will work.
Daley noted that it is important Congress provide adequate funding for the census.
"This kind of living with a sword over the Census Bureau's head ... does not lend well to long-term planning," he said.
When asked whether he would recommend that Clinton veto an appropriations bill that does not provide enough funding, Daley said, "We'll make a decision on that, but I think that's where I will come down."
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