CMB was established by the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and the Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1998.CMB’s function is to observe and monitor all aspects of the Bureau of the Census’ preparation and implementation of the 2000 Census. CMB is also to promote the 2000 Census by encouraging the public to provide full and timely responses to census questionnaires. The legislation establishing CMB did not define its status or, with a few exceptions, specify laws that would govern its operations. In our opinion, supported by substantial precedent on similarly established boards and commissions, CMB is an agency in the legislative branch and is subject to laws generally applicable to the legislative branch except to the extent that provisions of law provide otherwise. See appendix III for further discussion. CMB held its first meeting on June 3, 1998, and thereafter began disbursing funds by hiring staff, locating and renovating office space, obtaining equipment and furniture, and creating a new organization from the ground up. The board consists of two members appointed by the Speaker of the House and two members by the Senate Majority Leader (the congressional CMB) and four members appointed by the President (the presidential CMB), with each side having a co-chairman. Board members are not entitled to pay for serving on the board but are entitled to reimbursement for travel expenses, including per diem when on official board business. The congressional and presidential CMB hired an executive director and staff and contracted for legal, consultant, and other services. CMB met with Bureau of the Census officials in Suitland, Maryland, and visited many of the local census offices, which are in every congressional district in the United States. In addition to reviewing bureau plans to conduct the census and efforts to improve enumeration techniques, CMB held joint hearings in Washington and across the country. CMB obtained testimony from Bureau of the Census officials, state and local officials, and community leaders to record their observations regarding Census 2000 efforts in their areas. In January 1999, the Supreme Court held that existing law did not authorize the use of statistical sampling for apportionment purposes.Subsequently, CMB focused on an outreach program with state and local governments and community groups to identify concerns and obstacles in obtaining an accurate and complete census. A particular concern is the widely acknowledged historical undercounting of rural populations and inner city minorities. CMB findings are presented in periodic reports to the Congress, of which six have been issued, the most recent on April 1, 2000. CMB received appropriations of $4 million for fiscal year 1998, $4 million for fiscal year 1999, and $3.5 million for fiscal year 2000. Each appropriation is available until expended. The CMB board allocated the congressional and presidential CMB $1.5 million each annually, with the balance allocated to a joint account to pay common expenses. As of March 31, 2000, the board employed 17 congressional and 14 presidential CMB staff. In addition, CMB legislation provides that it is considered a committee of the Congress for purposes of having CMB costs relating to printing and binding paid from the Congressional Printing and Binding appropriation. CMB entered into an interagency agreement with the Government Printing Office (GPO) for GPO to pay CMB’s bills and provide payroll, procurement, and travel services. GPO provides a monthly report of CMB disbursements for the congressional, presidential, and joint accounts. GPO charges $1,000 annually to each side for payroll processing and a fee of 6 percent of noninventory purchases. However, this agreement did not relieve the congressional and presidential CMB of the responsibility to maintain an adequate system of internal controls, approve disbursements in accordance with established polices and procedures, and maintain documentation to support disbursements. CMB legislation did not require (1) annual financial statement or internal control audits or (2) inspector general oversight to conduct audits and investigations as needed or requested. The General Services Administration (GSA), in coordination with the Department of Commerce, was responsible for providing office space for CMB at the Bureau of the Census complex in Suitland, Maryland. CMB’s enabling legislation provides that it shall cease to exist on September 30, 2001. The following are our findings for the seven specific matters, which are presented as questions with responses. 1. Were presidential CMB funds used to print reports for the 1998 World Exposition? Our review of presidential CMB disbursements over $200 did not identify any documented evidence that presidential CMB funds were used to pay for printing reports for the 1998 World Exposition in Lisbon, Portugal. The former presidential CMB co-chairman and the presidential CMB executive director had been former U.S. pavilion officials at the 1998 World Exposition immediately before coming to CMB. The presidential CMB executive director provided invoices from a commercial business that printed the 1998 World Exposition reports at a total cost of $4,538. Initially, the presidential CMB executive director paid $1,369 of the invoices by personal check. He was later reimbursed for this amount by personal check of the former presidential CMB co-chairman, who paid the remaining $3,169 by personal check directly to the printer. 2. Did congressional CMB videotapes have a narrow political distribution and did internal controls exist over the use of copyrighted material? We found no documented evidence that congressional CMB videotapes produced had a narrow political distribution. We identified nine video productions with over 4,300 copies that were widely distributed to nonprofit organizations, community groups, and units of state and local government. This wide distribution included about 1,200 copies of a video on census undercounts entitled “On Every Street” featuring the congressional CMB co- chairman. While some copies of this tape were labeled “For Republican Mayors,” the distribution was far wider and included community groups and others noted above. We found that no CMB controls existed over the use of copyrighted material because CMB had not contemplated such a use. However, the congressional CMB did obtain a written release from a recording company for the use of background music for a videotape production. This release, however, was obtained after the fact. 3. Were congressional and presidential CMB travel funds used in connection with political events? We found no documented evidence that CMB funds were used for political travel. Through March 31, 2000, we found the following: The congressional CMB co-chairman, who lives in Ohio, took 36 trips, including 15 to CMB offices in Suitland, Maryland, for CMB business. The remaining 21 trips to various locations throughout the country were to attend board meetings, conduct field hearings, attend conferences, meet with local government and community leaders, and participate in other CMB events. The former presidential CMB co-chairman took two trips, one to South Carolina and another to California, to conduct CMB field hearings. We noted that he did not claim reimbursement for all presidential CMB travel taken, although entitled to reimbursement. CMB staff took 2 trips to New Hampshire and 10 trips to Arizona. All trips had a stated CMB purpose to meet with local officials or to attend conferences. There was no travel to Iowa. During the 2 months before the early presidential primaries in these three states, a congressional CMB employee traveled to Arizona to meet with area complete-count committees several weeks before the Arizona democratic primary. 4. Were four presidential CMB contracts for studies on census undercounting properly procured? We found no evidence to indicate that four presidential CMB contracts to conduct studies on census undercounting were improperly procured. The presidential CMB followed the joint CMB procurement policy for four separate contracts totaling $251,000 for studies of census undercounting. The four separate presidential CMB contracts were as follows: In the summer of 1999, the presidential CMB prepared a request for proposal for an analysis of how a 2000 census undercount could affect federal funding allocations to the 50 states over the next decade. The cost of this effort was estimated to be under $150,000, which, under the CMB joint policy for procurement of temporary or intermittent services, requires that three bids be obtained with an effort to award contracts to small businesses. Due to the type of work required, three nationally known consultants were contacted. Two firms submitted written proposals, and the lowest bid, $140,000, was selected. This work was completed in November 1999 with a briefing. The contractor proposed a second analysis to estimate funding distortions at a cost of $50,000, which was under the $75,000 CMB policy for a sole-source procurement. The cost was later amended and increased to $70,000 because the Bureau of the Census released new data requiring recalculations. A written report was delivered by December 31, 1999. The contractor then proposed a third analysis of funding distortions at a cost of $30,000, which CMB agreed would be efficient to perform based on work already done. For efficiency, the results of this effort were incorporated into the written report of the second analysis. Finally, the contractor provided an Internet version of the study at a cost of $6,000 and printed copies at a cost of $5,000. There is no indication that CMB anticipated having the second and third analyses performed when the first analysis was competitively awarded. 5. Were protected census data accessed by two former congressional CMB employees? We found no evidence that two former congressional CMB employees accessed confidential census data protected by Title 13, U.S. Code.All CMB employees take an oath not to disclose Title 13 information. The two former employees involved stated that their former jobs as CMB counsel and director of outreach, respectively, gave them no reason to access Title 13 data and that they had not seen any such data during their time at CMB. We obtained Bureau of the Census control logs, maintained in date order, of all CMB requests for documents including Title 13 protected data. Bureau of the Census officials identified only the two following occasions in which Title 13 data were provided to the congressional CMB before the two staff left in September 1999 to work for the Republican National Committee on redistricting issues.