Census Bureau to revive sampling

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Saying the time has run out for bickering over methods, Census Director Kenneth Prewitt announced Wednesday the 2000 Census will provide a traditional head count for congressional apportionment, to be followed by a "more accurate" number for other purposes.

"We've simply got to be doing it. We've got to move forward," Prewitt told a news conference 13 months before his agency has to count the nation's estimated 275 million people. Prewitt said his bureau will use traditional methods to make population estimates for the 50 states by Dec. 31, 2000, for use in distributing the 435 seats in the House. The Supreme Court required such counting for apportionment in a decision last month. But the job won't be finished then, Prewitt said. The bureau will then undertake a statistical-sampling method it calls Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation to determine how many people were missed and to develop more accurate numbers. Those numbers will be released April 1, 2001, for use when states draw new congressional and legislative districts. They also will be available for use in distributing federal funds and other purposes. Plans to use statistical sampling in the census have brought heated debate between the administration and Congress, and Prewitt's announcement drew prompt criticism from House Speaker Dennis Hastert. "While congressional Republicans are committed to developing legal, community-based initiatives to count everyone in America, I'm disappointed that the Clinton-Gore administration apparently will not allow the professionals at the census bureau to actually count everyone," Hastert said in a statement. After producing two census numbers in 1990 -- one with sampling, one without -- the bureau had been seeking to avoid confusion with a one-number count in 2000. To announce a two-number census now, Hastert said, is "hypocritical" and a "flip-flop." Prewitt said he doesn't see it as a two-number census but rather one number that is less complete, another that is more complete. The debates over sampling have delayed preparations for Census 2000, and Prewitt said there is no longer any room for discussion of methods. The 2000 Census involves mailing forms to nearly 100 million households and sending thousands of workers to follow up the millions that don't reply. It is the federal government's largest peacetime mobilization, Prewitt noted.

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