Final census report stirs a bit of controversy
Republican members of the Census Monitoring Board made public Monday their final report on the 2000 decennial census--but because the board's mandate and funding expired Sunday, House Democrats said today GOP board members have no authority to issue the report and already are calling for a General Accounting Office investigation.
Wick Caldwell, executive director for the GOP members, said the board formally submitted its report to Congress Sunday and he is working this week as a volunteer to close down the office.
As of Monday afternoon, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., who has taken a lead on census issues for House Democrats, was preparing a letter this to GAO Comptroller David Walker, requesting an investigation into whether the GOP board members violated federal law by contracting for work after Sunday--the end of fiscal 2001.
Caldwell, who acknowledged he was off the government payroll as of midnight, said today he had been "right and proper" to pay for phone and Internet support to continue into FY02 in order to close down the office.
The bipartisan board--part of a compromise between former President Clinton and congressional Republicans--was expected to pass into obscurity as its mandate ran out after more than three years of monitoring the 2000 census.
Democratic members shut down their operations last week after they issued their own final report, recommending a series of measures for the 2010 decennial census.
The GOP report concludes sampling would not have improved the undercount of neighborhoods underrepresented in the 2000 census.
The two sides mostly conducted separate studies and issued conflicting reports, reflecting the partisan approaches taken by House members.
The issue of sampling for redistricting is largely moot; the Bush administration earlier this year announced it would not, at least immediately, release detailed sampling data, therefore effectively preventing states from using the controversial method to draw up new congressional maps.