The House Wednesday on a 227-201 vote defeated a Democratic plan that would have allowed the Census Bureau to proceed with efforts to use sampling techniques to conduct the 2000 census. The Democratic plan would have funded the Census Bureau for an entire year through an amendment to the fiscal 1999 Commerce-Justice-State appropriations bill.
Wednesday's vote set up a confrontation with President Clinton, who told the Democratic Caucus he would veto the bill.
Rep. Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va., said his amendment would provide full funding in FY99 to the bureau to pay for "dual track" preparations for a census that would either use sampling or not.
"We're only funding the census for half a year. That's why the 2000 census is at risk," Mollohan said. If the Supreme Court rules sampling is constitutional, or fails to take up the issue, his amendment would have cut off funding for a traditional census.
House Commerce-Justice-State Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky., said the amendment would have violated last year's agreement between Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., that a final decision would not be made until early next year, while the bureau continues with its dress rehearsals and allows the courts to decide.
"We've done everything we can in this bill to implement the agreement the president asked us for," Rogers said.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said Clinton today told Democrats he would "absolutely" veto the bill if the House did not provide funding for the full year. And in a statement today, Clinton said he was "very disappointed" in the House's action. "By failing to adopt this amendment, the House is undermining the Census Bureau's ability to plan and conduct an accurate decennial census," Clinton said.
The $33.5 billion funding bill would provide the bureau with $956 million--but divide it into two installments. The first would end March 31, and the President would then have to request the second installment.
Gingrich, in a floor speech today, equated sampling--which would approximate 10 percent of the population based upon a count of the other 90 percent--with polling, and said he wants to work with Democrats to ensure an accurate census.
"We will make sure every single American is counted," Gingrich said, including relying on the U.S. Postal Service and beginning with the poorest neighborhoods.
Government Reform Census Subcommittee Chairman Dan Miller, R- Fla., called sampling a "radical, difficult approach" that would count "computer generated" people. "The plan proposed does not count 26 [million] to 27 million people," Miller said.
NEXT STORY: House Dems warn OMB of reg reform worries