Washington, DC - Today, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, former ranking member of the House Census Subcommittee released the following statement regarding the Census Bureau's announcement today:

"While the Bush Administration is again admitting that the 2000 Census undercounted African American males, continuing the racial disparity first measured after the 1940 census, the problem with today's announcement is that undercount appears to be okay with them."

"The shame of all this is that the Bush Administration is already working to ensure that the 2010 Census will not have the capacity to correct this undercount, which cannot be eliminated by traditional census methods, as we again learned in 2000."

"Today's report also fails to address the fact that the total number of errors they are reporting in the 2000 Census just went up dramatically."

"The Bush Administration, without any public review, public comment, without any public hearings, or Congressional oversight, has been struggling to justify their initial decision not to correct the census. They clearly want to justify their already announced plans for a 2010 census that will not have the capacity to correct this racial disparity."

For additional background and a complete history on Representative Maloney's work on the 2000 Census, please go to: http://maloney.house.gov/

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