February 14, 2001

For Immediate Release

Contacts: John Chambers
301-713-6672

PRESIDENTIAL MEMBERS OF CENSUS MONITORING BOARD RESPOND TO RELEASE OF CENSUS DATA

Washington D.C. -- In response to the Census Bureau's preliminary release of census data today, Gilbert F. Casellas, Presidential Co-Chair of the U.S. Census Monitoring Board released the following statement:

"While it appears that the Bureau improved on the 1990 count, we still don't have all the pieces of the puzzle; we still don't know the margin of error, who was counted twice and where the people that were missed reside. We must be sure that we are not double counting whites at the expense of counting minorities. What is an acceptable number of Americans not included in the census? Our answer is none."

Established in 1997, the Census Monitoring Board is a bipartisan board that monitors the Census Bureau's conduct of the 2000 census. Its findings are reported every six months to Congress. For more information on the Board, visit http://www.cmbp.gov.