Editorial: GOP must live up to its pledge

Tuesday, June 8, 1999 | 9:53 a.m.

The bill is in -- and it's hefty. The Census Bureau estimates that the cost to count Americans in 2000 will increase by $1.7 billion if it is going to comply with the U.S. Supreme Court's restrictions placed on the use of statistical sampling.

The Census Bureau had wanted to supplement its traditional head count next year by using a scientific polling method that would estimate the number of uncounted Americans, providing both a cheaper and more accurate count. The 1990 Census contained significant errors. It was estimated that 8.4 million Americans weren't counted and another 4.4 million were double-counted.

Republicans in Congress took the Census Bureau to court, though, arguing that sampling would violate the Constitution's requirement that a census requires "actual enumeration." House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, has said Congress will provide whatever funds are needed to do an actual count.

Unfortunately, as soon as the Census Bureau revealed last week how much it would take to perform a head count, there were signs that Republicans may balk at making an additional appropriation. It should have been no surprise that shifting to a head count alone would cost substantially more -- hiring more workers, paying additional overtime, etc. But a spokeswoman for the House Appropriations Committee disingenuously told the Associated Press that the Census Bureau's needs are related to operational problems and cost overruns -- not to the Supreme Court decision.

Why is it important that the Census Bureau has enough funding to do its job? Aside from ensuring an accurate count of the American population, representation in Congress and the amount of funds for federal programs all hinge on an accurate count. Southern Nevada, which has seen tremendous growth in the past decade, is a metropolitan area that has justifiable concerns about being undercounted.

Most political observers suggested that the underlying reason for the House GOP leadership's court challenge was inspired by politics, not principle. Many of those who typically are undercounted live in urban areas, are low-income and are minorities, groups that typically vote for Democrats more often than for Republicans.

The House GOP leadership should put its money where its mouth is and approve the additional funding necessary to carry out an accurate count. If the House fails to provide the extra funding it will be abundantly clear that its challenge of sampling was all about politics -- nothing else.