Commerce Secretary Robert Mosbacher defended Tuesday his decision not to adjust the 1990 census as the "fairest for all Americans," but a black congressman said it was a disservice to people of his race.
Mosbacher announced Monday, under a court-imposed deadline, that he would not replace the Census Bureau's 1990 national population count with statistical estimates. The government has acknowledged that its census missed 5.3 million people."Ultimately, I had to come down with a decision that is fairest for all Americans," Mosbacher told the House subcommittee on census and population. But he conceded the need to find a better way of counting Americans in the future.
Rep. Charles Hayes, D-Ill., told Mosbacher the failure of the census to count many blacks did "a great disservice to people of my race."
Blacks, Hispanics and other inner-city residents were most likely to be missed by counters in the April 1990 tally. People in smaller communities, whites, Asian-Americans and Midwesterners were less likely to be overlooked.
"We thought there would be a little more fairness," said Rep. Pat Schroeder, D-Colo. "We want to hear if the devil made you do it," she said, questioning whether the White House had influenced Mosbacher's decision.
Officials in the states and cities with flawed counts have promised to return to court demanding a revision.
Mosbacher's decision will cost some states and urban areas millions of dollars in federal aid, since an estimated $59 billion a year is distributed based on population numbers decided by the census.
"To shortchange the American people in this manner - and in particular our nation's cities, which suffer greatly due to the undercount - is nothing less than statistical grand larceny," said New York Mayor David Dinkins said.
Rep. Tom Sawyer, D-Ohio, chairman of the House subcommittee, denounced Mosbacher's decision as an effort to "gerrymander on a national scale." But Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., chairman of a Senate oversight panel, said trying to replace the head count with an estimate would create too many technical problems.
The government has been counting people for 200 years and has never scrapped its census in favor of statistical adjustments.
"Before we take a step of that magnitude, we must be certain it would actually make the census better and the distribution of the population more accurate," Mosbacher said. "After thorough review, I find the evidence inconclusive and unconvincing."
New York City and 31 other cities, states, organizations and individuals had asked a federal court to order the census corrected, and the court ordered Mosbacher to decide.