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Union Calendar No. 53

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 929

[Report No. 106–96]

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.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MARCH 2, 1999

Mr. MILLER of Florida (for himself, Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin, Mr. DAVIS of

Virginia, and Mr. SOUDER) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Government Reform

APRIL 19, 1999

Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union

and ordered to be printed

A BILL

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.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
2

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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘2000 Census Language

3 Barrier Removal Act’’.

4 SEC. 2. REQUIREMENT.

5 (a) IN GENERAL.—Subchapter I of chapter 1 of title

6 13, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end

7 the following:

8 ‘‘§ 17. Requirement relating to census questionnaires

9 ‘‘(a) The Secretary shall design and carry out a pro10 gram under which—

11 ‘‘(1) the short form used in taking the 2000 de12 cennial census shall, in addition to being printed in

13 English, be prepared in each of the alternative

14 versions described in subsection (b);

15 ‘‘(2) upon request, a household shall, instead of

16 receiving the printed English version of that short

17 form, be sent the alternative version (described in

18 subsection (b)) specified in its request; and

19 ‘‘(3) those alternative versions shall otherwise

20 be made available to the public in such manner as

21 will, in the judgment of the Secretary, most effec22 tively enhance response rates in the 2000 decennial

23 census.

24 ‘‘(b) The versions described in this subsection are Ar25 abic, Armenian, Bengali, Cambodian, Chinese, Creole,

26 Czech, Dutch, Farsi, French, German, Greek, Hindi,
3

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1 Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lao, Latvian,

2 Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian,

3 Russian, Samoan, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish, Tagalog,

4 Thai, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Yiddish, and such other lan5 guages as the Secretary considers appropriate, as well as

6 braille (for at least English).

7 ‘‘(c) For purposes of this Act—

8 ‘‘(1) the term ‘decennial census’ means a decen9 nial census of population conducted under section

10 141(a); and

11 ‘‘(2) the term ‘short form’ refers to the short

12 form of the questionnaire used in taking a decennial

13 census.’’.

14 (b) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—

15 (1) Section 5 of title 13, United States Code, is amended

16 by striking ‘‘title.’’ and inserting ‘‘title, subject to section

17 17.’’.

18 (2) The table of sections for subchapter I of chapter

19 1 of title 13, United States Code, is amended by adding

20 after the item relating to section 16 the following:

‘‘17. Requirement relating to census questionnaires.’’.
Union Calendar No. 53

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 929

[Report No. 106–96]

A BILL

To amend title 13, United States Code, to require

languages besides English.decennial census be made available in certainthat the questionnaire used in taking the 2000

APRIL 19, 1999

Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the

State of the Union and ordered to be printed