[House Report 106-96]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
106th Congress Report
1st Session HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 106-96
=======================================================================
2000 CENSUS LANGUAGE BARRIER REMOVAL ACT
_______
April 19, 1999.--Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the
State of the Union and ordered to be printed
_______
Mr. Burton of Indiana, from the Committee on Government Reform,
submitted the following
R E P O R T
together with
Minority Views
[To accompany H.R. 929]
[Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]
The Committee on Government Reform, to whom was referred
the bill (H.R. 929) to amend title 13, United States Code, to
require that the questionnaire used in taking the 2000
decennial census be made available in certain languages besides
English, having considered the same, report favorably thereon
without amendment and recommend that the bill do pass.
CONTENTS
Page
I. Summary of Legislation....................................... 2
II. Background and the Need for Legislation...................... 2
III. Legislative Hearings and Committee Actions................... 3
IV. Committee Hearings and Written Testimony..................... 3
V. Explanation of the Bill...................................... 3
VI. Compliance with Rule XIII.................................... 4
VII. Budget Analysis and Projections.............................. 4
VIII. Cost Estimate of the Congressional Budget Office............. 4
IX. Specific Constitutional Authority for This Legislation....... 5
X. Committee Recommendation..................................... 5
XI. Congressional Accountability Act; Public Law 104-1........... 6
XII. Unfunded Mandates Reform Act; Public Law 104-4, Section 423.. 6
XIII. Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.) Section 5(b).. 6
XIV. Changes in Existing Law...................................... 7
I. Summary of Legislation
H.R. 929 amends title 13, of the United States Code, to
require the short form questionnaire that will be used in
taking the 2000 Decennial Census be made available in certain
languages, including Braille, aside from English. This bill
also gives the Secretary of Commerce the authority to choose
which method the additional forms will be made available to the
public to best enhance response rates.
II. Background Information and Need for Legislation
H.R. 929 was introduced by Mr. Miller to address concerns
that the Census Bureau will print census forms in only five
languages other than English (Chinese, Korean, Spanish,
Tagalog, and Vietnamese) in the 2000 Decennial Census. This
legislation requires the Secretary to print the short form
questionnaire in 33 languages other than English, including
Braille. The United States is home to immigrants from nearly
100 countries around the world, and providing the census
questionnaires in a myriad of languages will better reflect the
diversity of our country. This legislation also provides an
added advantage in outreach to local ethnic communities who
otherwise would not be inclined to fill out a census form in
English. People would be more likely to correctly complete and
return a census form in their native tongue if they feel
comfortable and thoroughly understand the questions. Included
in this outreach, there are an estimated 750,000 blind people
across the country, of which over 20% read Braille. It is
important that the Bureau issue an alternative version of the
questionnaire in Braille to count these people.
According to the Bureau, the current plan to print the
questionnaires in five languages will reach 99 percent of the
population in the United States. Meanwhile, the Bureau will not
attempt to reach the remaining one percent of the population
(2.7 million people).The Bureau plans to address the remainder
of the population that speaks foreign languages through Telephone
Questionnaire Assistance Centers and foreign language assistance
booklets. This is insufficient outreach to a sector of the population
that tends to be undercounted due to the lack of adequate
communication. The result of adding 33 additional languages would be an
effective increase in outreach to boost the response rate, and serve as
a cost-effective measure. An increased mail response rate from returned
questionnaires would offset follow-up costs in the field.
To secure responses from the greatest number of households,
this legislation gives the Secretary the discretion to decide
how the forms should be made available to the public. An
example of how the forms would be distributed throughout
various communities may include a targeted mailing, or placing
the forms at certain official Census Bureau locations (``Be
Counted sites'') in areas where it is known that the languages
are predominately spoken.
The Congress is committed to achieving the most accurate
census possible. This goal can be achieved through the highest
level of outreach and communication possible, and it is
necessary to employ the resources that reinforce these notions.
Printing questionnaires in alternative languages to try and
reach 100 percent of the population is one step in securing the
level of outreach the Bureau must maintain to ensure that each
person is counted in the 2000 Decennial Census.
III. Legislative Hearings and Committee Actions
H.R. 929 was introduced on March 2, 1999 by the Honorable
Dan Miller (R-FL). The bill was referred to the Committee on
Government Reform on March 2, 1999, and it was referred to the
Subcommittee on the Census March 10, 1999. The Subcommittee
held a mark-up on March 11, 1999. No amendments were offered,
and the measure was ordered favorably reported to the full
Committee by a rollcall vote of 6-4.
RECORD VOTE
Date: March 11, 1999.
Summary: Passage of H.R. 929.
Vote by Members: Mr. Miller--Aye; Mr. Doolittle--Aye; Mr.
Davis of Virginia--Aye; Mr. Souder--Aye; Mr. Ryan--Aye; Mr.
Burton--Aye; Mrs. Maloney--Nay; Mr. Davis of Illinois--Nay; Mr.
Ford--Nay; Mr. Waxman--Nay.
IV. Committee Hearings and Written Testimony
The Committee did not hold any specific legislative or
oversight hearings on H.R. 929. However, during an oversight
hearing entitled ``Oversight of the 2000 Census: Examining the
America Counts Today (ACT) Initiatives To Enhance Traditional
Enumeration Methods,'' held on March 2, 1999, the issue
addressed by this legislation was mentioned.
V. Explanation of the Bill as Reported: Section-by-Section Analysis
Section 1. Short Title. This Act may be cited as the ``2000
Census Language Barrier Removal Act.''
Section 2. This section adds a requirement to Subchapter I
of chapter I of title 13, United States Code, insert Sec. 17--
relating to census questionnaires--(a) where the Secretary
shall design a program to print the short form questionnaires
used in taking the 2000 Census in alternative languages, other
than English. Upon request, a household shall receive a
questionnaire in the alternative language. Furthermore, the
alternative language short form questionnaires will be made
available to the public in the manner the Secretary deems most
feasible to effectively increase response rates in targeted
areas. (b) The alternative language questionnaires shall be
printed in the following versions: Arabic, Armenian, Bengali,
Cambodian, Chinese, Creole, Czech, Dutch, Farsi, French,
German, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean,
Lao, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese,
Romanian, Russian, Samoan, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish, Tagalog,
Thai, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Yiddish, and such other languages
as the Secretary considers appropriate, as well as English
Braille.
VI. Compliance With Rule XIII
Pursuant to rule XIII, clause 3(c)(1) of the Rules of the
House of Representatives, under the authority of rule X, clause
2(b)(1) and clause 3(e), the results and findings from
committee oversight activities are incorporated in the bill and
this report.
VII. Budget Analysis and Projections
The budget analysis and projections required by section
308(a) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 are contained in
the estimate of the Congressional Budget Office.
VIII. Cost Estimate of the Congressional Budget Office
U.S. Congress,
Congressional Budget Office,
Washington, DC, April 7, 1999.
Hon. Dan Burton,
Chairman, Committee on Government Reform,
House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office has
prepared the enclosed cost estimate for H.R. 929, the 2000
Census Language Barrier Removal Act.
If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be
pleased to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Mark Hadley.
Sincerely,
Barry B. Anderson
(for Dan L. Crippen, Director).
Enclosure.
H.R. 929--2000 Census Language Barrier Removal Act
In conducting the decennial census in 2000, the Bureau of
the Census will mail every household a questionnaire. The
bureau plans to provide an alternative questionnaire in five
languages other than English (Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese,
Tagalog, or Korean) to those households that request one in
writing. H.R. 929 would require the bureau to provide
requesting households an alternative questionnaire in one of 34
languages, including English Braille. The bill also would allow
the bureau of make additional copies of questionnaires in
alternative languages available to enhance response rates in
the 2000 decennial census.
Based on information from the bureau, CBO estimates that
implementing H.R. 929 would cost between $10 million and $20
million in 2000, assuming appropriation of the necessary
amount. H.R. 929 would not affect direct spending of receipts;
therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures would not apply. H.R. 929
contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as
defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act, and would impose
no costs on state, local, and tribal governments.
Based on information from the bureau, CBO estimates that
the bureau would spend between $5 million and $10 million to
provide questionnaires in additional languages. According to
the bureau, 1 percent of households cannot speak English or one
of the five languages currently included on the alternative
questionnaires. Although there would be relatively few
questionnaires in additional languages, the cost per
questionnaire would be significantly higher than the costs of
questionnaires for the six languages currently included. The
bureau would have to change their marketing materials to inform
households of the alternative forms. Most languages other than
Spanish and English must be transmitted to printers on film
(rather than electonic filed), so the printing process would be
more expensive. Printing questionnaires in Braille would
require special computer generated zinc plates.
Collecting data from questionnaires in additional languages
also would be more expensive. The bureau plans to spend about
$600 million over the 1998-2000 period on automated data
processing and telecommunications support. CBO expects the
bureau would not construct automated systems to capture the
data from the alternative forms, but instead, would translate
and manually enter the information into a database. CBO
estimates that the bureau would spend between $5 million and
$10 million to process questionnaires in 34 additional
languages.
In addition to the costs cited above, H.R. 929 could affect
spending by the Bureau of the Census in two other ways, but CBO
cannot estimate their efforts. First, the bureau would likely
incur additional costs to process more duplicate questionnaires
if forms in multiple languages are made available in community
centers. Second, because H.R. 929 could increase the rate of
response by mail, it could reduce the costs for having
temporary employees telephoning or visiting households that did
not respond to the questionnaire. The bureau estimates that a 1
percent increase in the response rate would save $25 million.
Hence, it is possible that implementing H.R. 929 could increase
the mail response rate enough to offset part of the estimated
$10 million to $20 million in costs; but CBO has no basis for
estimating the bill's likely effect on the response rate.
The CBO staff contact is Mark Hadley. This estimate was
approved by Paul N. Van de Water, Assistant Director for Budget
Analysis.
IX. Specific Constitutional Authority for This Legislation
Clauses 1 and 18 of Article 1, Sec. 8, and Article 1, Sec.
2 of the Constitution grant Congress the power to enact this
law.
X. Committee Recommendation
On March 17, 1999, a quorum being present, the Committee on
Government Reform ordered the bill favorably reported.
RECORD VOTE
Date: March 17, 1999.
Amendment Number 1 to H.R. 929.
Summary: Page 2, strike line 5 and all that follows through
page 3, line 3, and insert the following.
Offered by: Hon. Eleanor Holmes Norton.
Failed by recorded vote: 20 ayes; 24 nays.
Vote by Members: Mr. Burton--Nay; Mr. Gilman--Nay; Mrs.
Morella--Nay; Mr. Shays--Nay; Ms. Ros-Lehtinen--Nay; Mr.
McHugh--Nay; Mr. Horn--Nay; Mr. Mica--Nay; Mr. Davis of
Virginia--Nay; Mr. McIntosh--Nay; Mr. Souder--Nay; Mr.
Scarborough--Nay; Mr. LaTourette--Nay; Mr. Sanford--Nay; Mr.
Barr--Nay; Mr. Miller--Nay; Mr. Hutchinson--Nay; Mr. Terry--
Nay; Mrs. Biggert--Nay; Mr. Walden--Nay; Mr. Ose--Nay; Mr.
Ryan--Nay; Mr. Doolittle--Nay; Mrs. Chenoweth--Nay; Mr.
Waxman--Aye; Mr. Lantos--Aye; Mr. Wise--Aye; Mr. Owens--Aye;
Mr. Towns--Aye; Mr. Kanjorski--Aye; Mrs. Mink--Aye; Mr.
Sanders--Aye; Mrs. Maloney--Aye; Ms. Norton--Aye; Mr. Fattah--
Aye; Mr. Cummings--Aye; Mr. Kucinich--Aye; Mr. Blagojevich--
Aye; Mr. Davis of Illinois--Aye; Mr. Tierney--Aye; Mr. Turner--
Aye; Mr. Allen--Aye; Mr. Ford--Aye; Ms. Schakowsky--Aye.
Date: March 17, 1999.
Summary: Final Passage of H.R. 929.
Offered by: Hon. Dan Miller.
Approved by recorded vote: 23 ayes; 21 nays.
Vote by Members: Mr. Burton--Aye; Mr. Gilman--Aye; Mrs.
Morella--Nay; Mr. Shays--Aye; Ms. Ros-Lehtinen--Aye; Mr.
McHugh--Aye; Mr. Horn--Aye; Mr. Mica--Aye; Mr. Davis of
Virginia--Aye; Mr. McIntosh--Aye; Mr. Souder--Aye; Mr.
Scarborough--Aye; Mr. LaTourette--Aye; Mr. Sanford--Aye; Mr.
Barr--Nay; Mr. Miller--Aye; Mr. Hutchinson--Aye; Mr. Terry--
Aye; Mrs. Biggert--Aye; Mr. Walden--Aye; Mr. Ose--Aye; Mr.
Ryan--Aye; Mr. Doolittle--Aye; Mrs. Chenoweth--Aye; Mr.
Waxman--Nay; Mr. Lantos--Nay; Mr. Wise--Nay; Mr. Owens--Nay;
Mr. Towns--Nay; Mr. Kanjorski--Nay; Mrs. Mink--Nay; Mr.
Sanders--Nay; Mrs. Maloney--Nay; Ms. Norton--Nay; Mr. Fattah--
Nay; Mr. Cummings--Nay; Mr. Kucinich--Nay; Mr. Blagojevich--
Nay; Mr. Davis of Illinois--Nay; Mr. Tierney--Nay; Mr. Turner--
Nay; Mr. Allen--Nay; Mr. Ford--Nay; Ms. Schakowsky--Nay.
XI. Congressional Accountability Act; Public Law 104-1; Section
102(B)(3)
H.R. 929 requires the Secretary of Commerce to print the
short form questionnaires used in taking the 2000 Decennial
Census in alternative languages, aside from English. The Act
does not apply to the House of Representatives or to the
Senate, thus H.R. 929 does not apply to Congress.
XII. Unfunded Mandates Reform Act; Public Law 104-4, Section 423
The Committee finds that the legislation does not impose
any Federal mandates within the meaning of section 423 of the
Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (Public Law 104-4).
XIII. Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.) Section 5(b)
The Committee finds that the legislation does not establish
or authorize establishment of an advisory committee within the
definition of 5 U.S.C. App., Section 5(b).
XIV. Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported
In compliance with clause 3(e) of rule XIII of the Rules of
the House of Representatives, changes in existing law made by
the bill, as reported, are shown as follows (new matter is
printed in italic and existing law in which no change is
proposed is shown in roman):
TITLE 13, UNITED STATES CODE
* * * * * * *
CHAPTER 1--ADMINISTRATION
SUBCHAPTER I--GENERAL PROVISIONS
Sec.
1. Definitions.
* * * * * * *
17. Requirement relating to census questionnaires.
* * * * * * *
SUBCHAPTER I--GENERAL PROVISIONS
* * * * * * *
Sec. 5. Questionnaires; number, form, and scope of inquiries
The Secretary shall prepare questionnaires, and shall
determine the inquiries, and the number, form, and subdivisions
thereof, for the statistics, surveys, and censuses provided for
in this [title.] title, subject to section 17.
* * * * * * *
Sec. 17. Requirement relating to census questionnaires
(a) The Secretary shall design and carry out a program under
which--
(1) the short form used in taking the 2000 decennial
census shall, in addition to being printed in English,
be prepared in each of the alternative versions
described in subsection (b);
(2) upon request, a household shall, instead of
receiving the printed English version of that short
form, be sent the alternative version (described in
subsection (b)) specified in its request; and
(3) those alternative versions shall otherwise be
made available to the public in such manner as will, in
the judgment of the Secretary, most effectively enhance
response rates in the 2000 decennial census.
(b) The versions described in this subsection are Arabic,
Armenian, Bengali, Cambodian, Chinese, Creole, Czech, Dutch,
Farsi, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian,
Japanese, Korean, Lao, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish,
Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Samoan, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish,
Tagalog, Thai, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Yiddish, and such other
languages as the Secretary considers appropriate, as well as
braille (for at least English).
(c) For purposes of this Act--
(1) the term ``decennial census'' means a decennial
census of population conducted under section 141(a);
and
(2) the term ``short form'' refers to the short form
of the questionnaire used in taking a decennial census.
* * * * * * *
MINORITY VIEWS
H.R. 929 is supposed to address the enumeration of non-
English speaking households, when in reality it does little
other than muddle a process that as currently planned by the
Census Bureau is both thorough and concise. What this bill does
accomplish is to require the Census Bureau to renegotiate
existing printing contracts and establish a second system for
distributing foreign language forms which will compete with
existing programs for funding.
This bill micro-manages the census. It would require the
Secretary to print the census short forms in Braille and 33
languages other than English. Foreign language forms would be
required to be provided upon request.
Passage of this bill would present serious problems for the
Census Bureau. Dr. Prewitt, director of the Census Bureau,
wrote to the Secretary of Commerce on this bill stating:
Were H.R. 929 to become law, the entire census
questionnaire workflow for receipt, image capture,
transcription, and key-from-paper would have to be
modified. We would have to renegotiate our largest
contracts--including nearly 20 printing contracts; the
contracts for the Telephone Questionnaire Assistance
program; Data Capture and Data Capture Service Centers.
An extensive amount of planning and evaluation has
gone into developing a system for mailing a pre-census
letter to 120 million households and for announcing the
availability of questionnaires in six languages
including English, which account for 99 percent of all
households in the U.S. The wording on this pre-census
letter has been carefully designed to minimize
confusion and maximize cooperation. If H.R. 929 became
law, we would have to figure out how to announce the
availability of forms in another 27 languages, which
may be of concern to approximately one million
households, without confusing the remaining 119 million
households.1
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Kenneth Prewitt, Director of the Census Bureau, Memorandum for
the Secretary, 2 (March 16, 1999).
The minority is concerned that all persons be counted, and
is particularly concerned about those persons who do not speak
or read English. That is why we oppose this bill. This bill
does not further the enumeration of all people, but rather is
less effective than the plan designed by the Census Bureau.
Indeed, the Census Bureau considered and specifically rejected
a plan very similar to the one encapsulated in the bill after a
thorough business analysis.
The Census Bureau has developed a program to reach 99% of
the households in America. That program is integrated into the
basic mail-out/mail-back structure of the census. To reach the
remaining 1% of the households, the Census Bureau has developed
an integrated language program that involves 15,000 paid
temporary staff positions in the Questionnaire Assistance
Centers, drawn from a wide range of language communities, and
will prepare 15 million assistance guides in several dozen
languages. H.R. 929, if enacted, would divert funds away from
this more effective plan.
The minority proposed an amendment to this bill at both the
Subcommittee and full Committee markups. That amendment would
have reiterated the congressional goal that the Census Bureau
should make every effort to assure that all people are counted
regardless of the language they speak. It would, however, leave
the design and implementation strategy for that goal to the
professionals at the Census Bureau. The amendment was rejected
both times on a party-line vote.
Taking the census is a complicated task. The Census Bureau
is charged with counting 120 million addresses and 275 million
persons and matching them up on a single day--April 1, 2000. To
accomplish that task the Census Bureau will go from a work
force of 10,000 employees to over 500,000 employees and back to
10,000 in a six-month period. The Census Bureau must count
people in the most dangerous parts of the United States and in
gated communities where strangers are barred by armed guards.
It must count the homeless and those in temporary housing. All
of this is done under the scrutiny of every local official in
the country.
The design to accomplish this task involves years of
planning, and then that design must be translated into detailed
activity schedules which lay out each procedure and how it
intertwines with every other procedure. This bill is designed
to throw a monkey wrench into the cogs of that machine.
Congress should provide the Census Bureau with policy guidance,
but it should not interfere with the professionals as they
carry out this enormous task.
Henry A. Waxman.
Jan Schakowsky.
Tom Allen.
Bernard Sanders.
Edolphus Towns.
Jim Turner.
Elijah E. Cummings.
Major R. Owens.
Bob Wise.
Harold E. Ford, Jr.
Carolyn B. Maloney.
Dennis J. Kucinich.
Chaka Fattah.
Paul E. Kanjorski.
Patsy T. Mink.
Rod R. Blagojevich.
Danny K. Davis.
Tom Lantos.
Eleanor H. Norton.
John F. Tierney.