I

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 683

To facilitate the recruitment of temporary employees to assist in the conduct

of the 2000 decennial census of population.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

FEBRUARY 10, 1999

Mrs. MEEK of Florida (for herself and Mr. MILLER of Florida) introduced the

following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Government Reform

A BILL

To facilitate the recruitment of temporary employees to assist

in the conduct of the 2000 decennial census of population.

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

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Decennial Census Im5 provement Act of 1999’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

7 The Congress finds that—

8 (1) the Constitution requires that the number

9 of persons in the Nation be enumerated every 10
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1 years in order to permit the apportionment of Rep2 resentatives among the several States;

3 (2) information collected through a decennial

4 census is also used to determine—

5 (A) the boundaries of congressional dis6 tricts within States;

7 (B) the boundaries of the districts for the

8 legislature of each State and the boundaries of

9 other political subdivisions within the States;

10 and

11 (C) the allocation of billions of dollars of

12 Federal and State funds;

13 (3) the Constitution requires that those enu14 merations be made in such manner as the Congress

15 ‘‘shall by law direct’’;

16 (4) in the 1990 decennial census, the Bureau of

17 the Census used a combination of mail question18 naires and personal interviews, involving more than

19 350,000 enumerators, to collect the census data; and

20 (5) in 1993, the Bureau concluded that legisla21 tion providing that pay for temporary census enu22 merators in the 2000 decennial census not be used

23 to reduce benefits under Federal assistance pro24 grams would make it easier for the Bureau to hire
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1 neighborhood people as temporary census enumera2 tors in low-income neighborhoods.

3 SEC. 3. MEASURES TO FACILITATE THE RECRUITMENT OF

4 TEMPORARY EMPLOYEES.

5 (a) PURPOSES FOR WHICH COMPENSATION SHALL

6 NOT BE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT.—Section 23 of title 13,

7 United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the

8 following:

9 ‘‘(d) Compensation for services performed by an indi10 vidual appointed by the Secretary to a temporary position

11 for purposes relating to the 2000 decennial census (if the

12 position is so designated by the Secretary, in writing, at

13 the time of such individual’s appointment) shall not be

14 taken into account for purposes of determining either the

15 eligibility of any individual for or the amount of benefits

16 payable to an individual under any Federal, State, or local

17 program financed in whole or in part with Federal

18 funds.’’.

19 (b) EXEMPTION FROM PROVISIONS RELATING TO

20 REEMPLOYED ANNUITANTS AND FORMER MEMBERS OF

21 THE UNIFORMED SERVICES.—Public Law 101–86 (13

22 U.S.C. 23 note) is amended—

23 (1) in section 1(b) and the long title by striking

24 ‘‘the 1990 decennial census’’ and inserting ‘‘the

25 2000 decennial census’’; and
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1 (2) in section 4 by striking ‘‘December 31,

2 1990.’’ and inserting ‘‘December 31, 2000.’’.

3 SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.

4 For purposes of this Act—

5 (1) the term ‘‘census’’ means a census of popu6 lation within the meaning of section 141(g) of title

7 13, United States Code; and

8 (2) the term ‘‘Bureau’’ means the Bureau of

9 the Census.

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