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FEBRUARY 19, 2001

Reversing a Clinton administration policy, the Department of Commerce on Friday said Secretary Donald Evans will decide on the use of raw or adjusted Census 2000 data.

Republicans and President George W. Bush want to use raw numbers for political redistricting and adjusted, or sampled, counts to determine federal funding. Democrats say adjusted counts should be used acrossed the board because they protect minority and poor populations.

About 12.2 percent of the American Indian and Alaska Native population was missed on the 1990 Census. Preliminary results from the 2000 Census indicate the undercount could be as low as 2.8 percent or as high as 6.8 percent.

Evans is expected to make a decision on the issue soon as states will begin receiving redistricting data next month.

Get the Story:
Commerce Secretary to Decide on Census (The Washington Post 2/17)

Get the Preliminary Undercount Results:
Preliminary Estimated Coverage of Census 2000 Based on the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation (A.C.E.) Survey (US Census Bureau February 2001)

Get a US Census Monitoring Board Report on Indian Country Undercount:
Profiling the Native American Community in Albuquerque: Assessing the Impacts of Census Undercounts and Adjustments (US Census Monitoring Board February 2001)

Relevant Links:
US Census Monitoring Bureau - www.cmpb.gov
US Census Bureau - www.census.gov

Related Stories:
Census estimates show improvement (Politics 2/15)
Report warns of Census undercount (Politics 2/12)
Reservation counties among poorest (The Talking Circle 11/24)
Census reports on uninsured Natives (The Talking Circle 10/02)
Census: Native Americans among poorest (The Talking Circle 9/27)
National, state poverty data (The Talking Circle 9/27)
Most reservations miss Census target (The Talking Circle 09/20)
Tribal response rates: 1990-2000 (The Talking Circle 9/20)
Report: Native buying power increases (Money Matters 9/8)
Native purchasing power by state (Money Matters 9/8)
Native population on the rise (The Talking Circle 08/31)
Census data by state (The Talking Circle 08/31)
Reservations respond to Census (The Talking Circle 4/20)