69–006

106TH CONGRESS REPORT " ! HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 1st Session 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

REPORT

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
2

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 costeffective 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 popu-
3

lation 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 § 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.
4

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-asyou-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. Al-
5

though 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.
6

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).
7

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

* * * * * * *

§ 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 øtitle.¿

title, subject to section 17.

* * * * * * *

§ 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—
8

(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.

* * * * * * *
(9)

1Kenneth Prewitt, Director of the Census Bureau, Memorandum for the Secretary, 2 (March

16, 1999).

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

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
10

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.

Æ