Panel OK's $4.5B for Census

ALAN FRAM, Associated Press Writer
AP Online
07-23-1999
Panel OK's $4.5B for Census

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A House panel voted Thursday to use $4.5 billion of next year's projected surplus to pay for the 2000 census, highlighting the problems Republicans face as they scramble to write spending and tax legislation.

The vote occurred shortly after Republicans pushed a $792 billion, 10-year tax cut through the House, a cut that would be paid for from projected federal surpluses. But the temptation to use next year's surplus for the census, and possibly other items, could end up eating into the very 10-year surplus that Republicans want to use for tax cuts.

``What a thin reed the tax cuts hang on,'' said Rep. Jose Serrano of New York, ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations subcommittee that approved the census money as part of a $35.8 billion measure financing the State, Justice and Commerce departments for the coming fiscal year. The bill was approved by voice vote.

The $4.5 billion was virtually the entire amount President Clinton requested for the census, which the Constitution requires every 10 years.

But the bill would declare the census expenditure an emergency, meaning the $4.5 billion would be exempted from legally required spending limits and, in effect, come from next year's projected $14 billion surplus. Doing that freed up money that could be used for other programs covered by the legislation.

``This is a tough year for us, obviously,'' said subcommittee Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky.

Rogers and others said declaring the census an emergency was decided by House GOP leaders. He said in an interview that the idea was justified because of a recent Supreme Court decision requiring the Census Bureau to use both a door-to-door count and computer-assisted statistical sampling.

``We couldn't anticipate what the costs would be,'' Rogers said.

This spring and last fall, many Republicans complained of budget gimmickry when Clinton proposed -- and Congress enacted -- multibillion-dollar spending bills of which large portions were declared emergencies. Democrats scoffed that this time, Republicans were using the technique for the constitutionally required head count.

``I guess that means that we didn't see it coming,'' Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., said of the census.

The census aside, the bill falls nearly $3 billion short of what Clinton has requested and is not likely to become law until budget talks expected this fall.

It would cut his requests for hiring police officers, legal aid to the poor, U.S. contributions to international organizations and helping salmon populations in the Northwest recover.

Meanwhile, the Senate used a voice vote to pass its $35.3 billion version of the bill. White House officials have already threatened a veto because it contains cuts similar to those of the House.

By voice vote, the Senate agreed to provide $496 million of Clinton's $1.3 billion proposal for helping communities hire police officers. Senators also used a voice vote to add provisions expanding federal jurisdiction over hate crimes to cover victims chosen because of their sexual orientation, gender or disability.

The Senate measure would provide $3 billion for the census, none of it paid for with the surplus.

The hate crimes legislation was among 34 amendments that senators approved -- without describing them -- in a single voice vote.

They ranged from language by Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., providing $500,000 for a truck safety initiative in New Jersey to a provision by Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., barring the use of U.S. contributions to the United Nations for treaties or rules for taxing Internet commerce.

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