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Census: Federal Census
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By May 1987, the Census Bureau had determined that the 1990 census could be adjusted for undercounting by using a technique called a post-enumeration survey (PES). The PES would allow the census to be checked for accuracy by sending census takers back to a given number of households that would be representative of the entire U.S. population and comparing the information gathered with the initial head count. If discrepancies arose, the bureau could make corrections and project them to neighborhoods with similar demographic characteristics. But in October 1987, officials from the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC), which oversees the Census Bureau, had decided against making any statistical adjustment to the 1990 census. As a result, in 1988, New York, Los Angeles, and several other cities, as well as a number of states and organizations, brought suit in federal district court. They claimed that the secretary's decision not to adjust the 1990 census violated their right to equal protection under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution and asked the court to enjoin the census.
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Congressional Apportionment The main reason for the Decennial Census is to determine each state's representation in the House, or its apportionment. This is determined by the state's apportionment population, which includes the resident population (where people live most of the time) as well as the count of overseas military and federal civilian employees who reside in each state.
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The first U.S. Census was conducted in 1790 by Federal marshals. Census-takers went door-to-door and recorded the number of people in each household, along with the name of the head of the household. Slaves were enumerated, but for apportionment purposes each counted as only three-fifths of a citizen. American Indians being neither taxed nor considered during apportionment were not counted in the census. The first census counted 3.9 million people, less than half the population of New York City in 2000; the 2000 census counted over 281 million people. In 1902, Congress established the Census Bureau as a permanent Federal agency.
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Census data are ... used to allocate federal and state funding and services. By the mid-1990s, more than $50 billion in federal aid for education, housing, and health programs to states and cities was distributed annually based on census numbers. In addition, census information is used in academic research and is sought by product manufacturers and marketers who want to know the demographics of potential consumers.
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A census is an enumeration of population. In the United States the federal government has conducted a census every ten years beginning in 1790, and Kansas conducted a census every ten years from 1855 to 1925. Special censuses have been taken when specific information was wanted. These special censuses include mortality schedules, slave schedules, enumerations of veterans, and censuses of Native Americans living on reservations.
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In the summer of 1995, Congress cut the budget of the Census Bureau by millions of dollars in its program to reduce federal expenditures. Bureau officials said the cuts would inhibit the bureau's ability to test new census techniques and technology that they hoped would increase the accuracy of the year 2000 census. Continuing public pressure and lawsuits over census figures could lead to new methods or new funding.
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