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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MONDAY, JULY 24, 2000 Decennial Media Relations CB00-CS.23 301-457-3691/301-457-3620 (fax) 301-457-1037 (TDD) e-mail: 2000usa@census.gov Statement of Census Bureau PIO Chief Maury Cagle Concerning House Census Subcommittee Majority Staff Review of Some Local Office Operations Census 2000 is not over. Right now, more than 200,000 temporary employees are double- checking the accuracy of the census across the country. This work will continue through the summer. Any problems found, or reported to us, will be quickly researched. The Census Bureau has continuously monitored each of its 520 local census offices since the beginning of the census, and has regularly presented the results to the subcommittee. Based upon our own reports, the subcommittee staff has formed premature conclusions while the census is still underway. Some of these conclusions are mistaken. Some of the problems described have already been corrected. We are confident that we have a good census. Any local issues raised are being professionally resolved by our best staff, managed by experienced career experts, in cooperation with local officials. The Census Bureau takes any report of irregularities seriously. Regrettably, not all complaints to the Congressional staff and the Census Monitoring Board have been forwarded to us for action. Unless we are provided specific locations or individual cases to research, it's not possible for us to correct errors and improve the count. The overall emphasis of the Congressional staff memo is that some offices finish early and some late. This is not surprising. A pattern of differing work completion rates is normal and expected for any operation as complex, large and diversified as the census; however, such a pattern does not constitute fraud. Fraud is a very serious allegation, and, in this case, undocumented. We have today formally requested a copy of the Congressional staff report. We are prepared to make public our own analysis of this report as soon as it is provided.