House Votes to Reject Sampling for 2000 Census
Ignoring a veto threat, the House voted Wednesday against allowing statistical sampling in the 2000 census.
The Republican-controlled chamber rejected, 227 to 201, a Democratic proposal to keep the door open for sampling, with only a handful of lawmakers defecting from each party. The Senate-approved version of the measure sidesteps the issue.
The measure is part of a $34-billion spending measure for the departments of Commerce, Justice and State, plus the federal courts.
Democrats want the Census Bureau, as it had planned, to use sampling to help tally hard-to-reach Americans, disproportionate numbers of whom are minorities who tend to vote Democratic. Republicans argue that sampling is unreliable and would let the Clinton administration manipulate figures.
Census data are used to redraw House district lines and to distribute hundreds of billions in spending.
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