Making Sausage: Congressional Efforts to Control the Census & the Census Bureau

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1 Making Sausage: Congressional Efforts to Control the Census & the Census Bureau Prepared for: National Poverty Center Summer 2010 Workshop Analyzing Poverty and Socioeconomic Trends Using the American Community Survey Ann Arbor, July 12 to 15, 2010 Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy University of Michigan Prepared by: Ren Farley Updated July 3, 2010 * Members of Congress may add riders to appropriations bill specifying how monies might or might not be spent by an agency such as the Census Bureau. They can also specify in detail how an agency will carry out its work. We have a long list of Asian races on the decennial census schedule because Representative Robert Matsui from Sacramento feared that Asians would be undercounted were a term for their race omitted from the complete count schedule in He added a rider to a military appropriations bill specifying that the Census Bureau list 29 Asian groups as races. President Reagan s administration pressured him to agree to a smaller number but he had the influence to get a number of Asian groups listed. * Riders or amendments concerning the census can be added at any time but are most likely to appear just before the decennial count. Riders and amendments concerning Census 2010 are listed below. Most riders, of course, are rejected but some are included when the solons enact laws. This list was prepared by Terri Ann Lowenthal (TerriAnn2k@aol.com), a legislative specialist who focuses upon census issues. OFFERED BY: MR. OLSON AMENDMENT NO. 1. In the item relating to Bureau of Census periodic censuses and programs, after the first dollar amount insert (reduced by $566,500,000) In the item=2 0relating to National Aeronautics and Space Administration exploration after the first dollar amount insert (increased by $566,500,000). In other words, move $566.6 million from the Census Bureau s Budget to NASA. OFFERED BY: MR. GARRETT OF NEW JERSEY AMENDMENT NO. 7: At the end of title V, before the short title, insert the following:sec. l. None of the funds made available in this Act may be used to make full or partial completion of the American Community Survey mandatory or to enforce civil penalties, including fines, for failure to complete the Survey in its entirety. This would change existing policy, in which the ACS is required by law. If this amendment had been enacted, answering ACS questions would have been optional.

2 OFFERED BY: MR. SCHOCK AMENDMENT NO.8: Page 3, line 4, after the dollar amount, insert (increased by $500,000) Page 7, line 5, after the dollar amount, insert (reduced by $500,000). I.e., move half a million out of the census budget. OFFERED BY: MR. SCHOCK AMENDMENT NO.9: Page 3, line 4, after the dollar amount, insert (increased by $500,000) Page 4, line 7, insert before the period at the end the following: Provided further, That of the amount appropriated under this heading $500,000 shall be used by the International Trade Administration to conduct a study and submit to Congress not later than 60 days after the date of the enactment of this Act a report on the economic impact, including the loss of jobs in the United States, since April 7, 2007, resulting from the failure to implement the United States-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement Page 7, line 5, after the dollar amount, insert (reduced by $500,000). Move another half million to the International Trade Commission and out of Census. OFFERED BY: MR. BROUN OF GEORGIA AMENDMENT NO. 60: At the end of the bill (before the short title), insert the following: SEC. ll. None of the funds made available in this Act may, for purposes of carrying out the 2010 decennial census, be used to apply the statistical method known as sampling, Gratuitous, because there is no plan to do so to begin with. This amendment was a component of a successful Republican effort to make sure that the Census Bureau would not produce population counts adjusted for undercount that might benefit Democrats in the redistricting. OFFERED BY: MR. AKIN AMENDMENT NO. 66: At the end of the bill (before the short title), insert the following: SEC. ll. None of the funds provided in this Act may be used by the Bureau of the Census to provide any grant to or contract with any organization that has been indicted, or employ or contract with any individual who has been indicted, for a violation under Federal law relating to an election for Federal office. This was probably inspired by arguments from some conservative commentators that the Census Bureau planned to contract with ACORN to recruit census enumerators. OFFERED BY: MR. BURTON OF INDIANA AMENDMENT NO. 71: At the end of the bill, before the short title, insert the following: SEC. ll. None of the funds made available in this Act may be used to relocate the Office of the Census or employees from the Department of Commerce to the jurisdiction of the Executive Office of the President. This proposed amendment sought to minimize Executive Office control

3 of Census Bureau employment. OFFERED BY: MR. GARRETT OF NEW JERSEY AMENDMENT NO. 99: At the end of the bill, before the short title, insert the following: SEC. ll. None of the funds made available in this Act may be used to make full or partial completion of the American Community Survey mandatory or to enforce civil penalties, including fines, for failure to complete the Survey in its entirety. See above. OFFERED BY: MR. BISHOP OF UTAH AMENDMENT NO. 101: At the end of the bill (before the short title), insert the following: SEC (a) None of the funds made available in this Act for the Bureau of the Census may be used for salaries and expenses of the Bureau of the Census unless, effective beginning with the 2010 decennial census of population, in taking any tabulation of total population by States under section 141(a) of title 13, United States Code, for purposes of the apportionment of Representatives in Congress among the several States, the Secretary of Commerce takes appropriate measures to ensure, to the maximum extent practicable, that all Americans residing abroad on the decennial census date are fully and accurately counted, and are properly attributed to their respective States. (b) The measures described in subsection (a) shall include at least the following: (1) One or more methods by which, at the request of a non-governmental organization, administrative records of such organization may, if such records satisfy such criteria as the Secretary may establish, be used to enumerate members of such organization who are residing overseas as of the decennial census date. (2) One or more methods under which an international Be Counted form may be completed at an embassy of the United States by Americans residing overseas as of the decennial census date. (c) Nothing in this section may be considered (1) to affect the methods used in the enumeration of any civilian or military personnel of the United States; or (2) to permit or require that the data obtained under this subsection be used for any purpose other than the apportionment of Representatives in Congress among the several States. This is coming from the fact that Utah did not gain a Congressional seat last time because their Mormon missionaries living abroad were not part of the census. Aside from the principle of the issue, it was way too late for the Census Bureau to implement such procedures for 2010 when the amendment was offered.

4 OFFERED BY: MR. MCHENRY AMENDMENT NO. 116: At the end of the bill, insert the following: SEC. ll. None of the funds made available in this Act to the Department of Commerce or the Bureau of the Census may be used to carry out statistical sampling in violation of section 195 of title 13, United States Code. See above. OFFERED BY: MR. KING OF IOWA AMENDMENT NO. 123: At the end of the bill (before the short title), insert the following: SEC. ll. None of the funds made available by this Act under Bureau of the Census shall be made available to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Republicans don't like the fact that ACORN was one of the thousands of Census Partners. In the summer of 2009, Census Director Robert Groves announced that the Bureau would not partner with ACORN. OFFERED BY: MR. KING OF IOWA AMENDMENT NO. 124: At the end of the bill (before the short title), insert the following: SEC. ll. None of the funds made available under this Act shall be made available to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Seems to be the same as amendment no Additional Congressional Matters Summer 2009 The Continuing Utah Effort to add a Representative If 830 more people had been counted by the Census in Utah in 2000, that state would have taken a congressional seat and electoral college vote from North Carolina. Twice Utah carried this matter to the Supreme Court both times they lost. There representative are not yet willing to concede defeat. In February, 2009; Senator Hatch and the Utah Representatives introduced a bill that would increase the size of the Lower House from 435 to 437. One of the new seats would go to the District of Columbia and the other to Utah. I do not know whether this legislation calls for a permanent increase in the size of the House or where the House would go back to 435 in Since 1913, the definitive law is one that calls for the House of Representatives to have 435 seats except the size may be temporarily increased when new states join the Union. When Alaska and Hawaii became states, the size of the House was temporarily increased to 437. Representative Jim Matthews of Utah in June, 2009, added an amendment to an appropriations bill for the State Department requiring that that a Cabinet agency conducts a study of methods for counting United States citizens living abroad. The House of Representatives approved this on a voice vote on June 11. In the late 1990s, Congress

5 appropriated funds for the Census Bureau to conduct such a study. Earlier this decade the Census Bureau attempted to count United States citizens living in France, Mexico and Saudi Arabia. The Bureau concluded that it was not possible to accurately count Americans living abroad. There is, for example, no law requiring that an American citizen living in a foreign country register with any federal agency. Representative Charles Rangel and the Dominicans Dominican is not a category listed in the Spanish origin question used in the ACS and in Census Nor is Dominican given as an example of a Spanish Origin for the question about Hispanicity. On May 18, 2009, Representative Rangel introduced a bill that would require all questionnaires used in decennial censuses to include a check box that would allow Dominicans to identify their origin or descent. The Census Bureau has let it be known that they have already contracted for the printing of Census 2010 questionnaires. The Vitter-Bennett Amendment about Citizenship HR2847 In the summer of 2009, Senators Vitter and Bennett offered an amendment that would have cut off all funding for Census 2010 unless the complete count enumeration scheduled asked respondents whether or not they were United States citizens. Congress had been told the topic to be covered in the census a year earlier and had been presented with the Census 2010 census schedule in early By the time, Senators Vitter and Bennett offered their amendment, census forms were being printed. Observers presumed that asking a question about citizenship might discourage non-citizens from filling out their census forms. And a question about citizenship might allow for estimating a reapportionment population that included only persons who said they were citizens. The Senate voted against this amendment along party lines: 60 to 39. Senator McCain was the abstaining voter.