| Congressman Faleomavaega today announced his disappointment
in Governor George W. Bush’s decision that if he was elected president,
he will not permit the use of corrected population counts from this year’s
census.
On March 5, 2000, during a press conference by Gov. Bush, a news
reporter asked, “Governor, you mentioned the similarities between California
and Texas. One of the issues in the minority community in California
is regarding the census and an undercount that they experienced 10 years
ago and can expect to experience again. What’s your position on the
idea of using a sampling method which would count minority communities
more fully? Your party is against it.”
Governor Bush replied, “Yeah, so am I. I think we need to
count, an actual count. I think we need to spend the money, make
the effort and work hard to get an actual count.”
On March 6, 2000, Congressman Faleomavaega along with Congresswoman
Carolyn Maloney responded to Gov. Bush’s decision. In their response,
Faleomavaega stated, “It is a sad day for the tens of thousands of Asians
and Pacific Islanders around the United States who would be missed by the
Census if Gov. Bush becomes President.”
On March 8, 2000 the New York Times reports that in 1997, George
W. Bush as Texas governor “approved the release of a state document that
found traditional census methods could never be accurate.”
In response, Congressman Faleomavaega issued the following statement.
"In 1997, Governor Bush clearly made a public admission that traditional
methods of counting will not produce an accurate portrait of our population.
Now, he takes the position of disallowing the use of sampled or corrected
census numbers. I want to know from Gov. Bush which is more important,
to know the truth about our population so we can serve the needs of all
Americans or to put politics before people's needs and follow party line.
I also want to remind Gov. Bush that in 1990, a Republican administration
disallowed some 5 million Americans from being included in the system and
their needs were disregarded." |
![[106th Congress]](/faleomavaega/press/press_2000/images/106.jpg)
