California IN BRIEF : SACRAMENTO : Lungren Pledges to Pursue Census Suit

Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren said Tuesday that the state will “vigorously pursue” a lawsuit seeking to force the U.S. Commerce Department to use adjusted census figures that would add more than 1 million people to California’s official population. The federal lawsuit was filed in 1988 by New York City, New York state, California and other cities and private organizations. Under a settlement reached in 1989, the Commerce Department agreed to prepare an adjustment to the 1990 census to determine whether the census had undercounted the population. The adjustment was done, and it estimated that more than 5 million people had been missed nationwide. But Commerce Secretary Robert A. Mosbacher rejected the recount, saying that it might not be any more accurate than the original census. Lungren, saying that he disagrees, noted that the populations of most of California’s major cities were found to have been undercounted. If the adjusted numbers were used, California would gain eight, rather than seven congressional seats, and would be given an increased share of federal funds that are distributed on the basis of population.