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By Steve Christol

Daily Bruin Contributor

Municipalities across the nation, including the city of Los Angeles, continue to challenge the U.S. Department of Commerce and its decision to ignore the estimated 3.3 million people not accounted for in Census 2000.

This undercount, estimated by the Census Bureau, could be used to adjust data from the census to make it more accurate in providing states with guidelines for congressional redistricting and allocation of government funds.

Los Angeles City Attorney Jim Hahn said he supports using the undercount to adjust the results of the census.

Last week, Commerce Secretary Don Evans ruled against the use of the undercount in adjusting the results of the census and called Census 2000 “the most accurate in history.”

Evans’ ruling came after the U.S. Census Bureau’s recommendation that there was not sufficient time to adjust the results of the census before April 1, the deadline set by federal law to release the data to states for redistricting purposes.

If the undercount is used to adjust the data, it could have an effect on programs intended to help economically and socially disadvantaged minorities by assuring that federal funds are accurately allotted to those programs and in the right proportions, according to reports published by the Associated Press. Minorities make up the majority of the 3.3 million people not counted for in the census.

The Census Bureau began releasing data to states last week as the April 1 deadline approaches, in spite of efforts by L.A. City Attorney Hahn and others to adjust the numbers to make up for the estimated undercount of 3.3 million. California is scheduled to receive its results from the Census Bureau next week.

In a lawsuit seeking a temporary restraining order against Evans, Hahn contends that Evans’ refusal to release the adjusted data violates the Census Act.

Hahn, a leader in the move to use the undercount to adjust the census data, filed the lawsuit in February on behalf of Los Angeles, along with other cities and counties across the country.

“The Census Bureau, by its own admission, missed counting 3.3 million Americans” in last year’s census, Hahn said in a statement. “That is a totally unacceptable situation. In Los Angeles, vital political representation and an estimated $325 million in federal and state funding allocated on the basis of population is at stake, and we will take every legal action we can to assure the most accurate count of city residents.”

But it is not clear that adjusting the census would actually help. Kenneth Wachter, professor of demography at UC Berkeley, said he opposes the use of the undercount to adjust the census. He said racial differentials of last year’s census compared to those from the 1990 census, and demographic analysis of last year’s census both show that Census 2000 was accurate. He said the use of adjusted data would make relatively little difference in the outcome of the census and in fact, make it more prone to error.

The 3.3 million people not counted in Census 2000 constitute 1.2 percent of the nation’s 281 million people. This number is down from the 1.6 percent, or about 4 million in 1990, when the last census was conducted.

Many supporters of adjusting the census, however, still believe that the number of people not counted for is too high to be left unadjusted. They argue that federal funding, which amounts to about $185 billion, will be disproportionately allocated if the census results are not adjusted.

According to supporters, minorities who are already economically and socially disadvantaged compared to the white majority will therefore not receive funding for programs designed to help alleviate social and economic problems.

“Census Bureau professionals saw the need to use sampling methods to make up for the discrepancies of the raw numbers. We strongly urge President Bush and the Congress to allow the Bureau to finish their evaluation of the numbers, and offer the nation the most reliable data available, ” said Stewart Kwoh, executive director of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, in a statement.

The census data, however, could result in weakening minority groups’ chances of receiving federal funds even if it is adjusted because of changes in the methods of conducting last year’s census.

Census 2000 was the first U.S. census to offer the option to people to claim more than one racial background. On the census, for example, someone who was half-white and half-American Indian could claim to be either “American Indian and Alaska Native,” or “American Indian and Alaska Native” and “white.”

In the 1990 census, if more than one category was checked off, only the first one was counted. Census 2000 also offered 63 different racial categories for people to choose from as opposed to only five offered in 1990, thus widening the scope of the new census.

With reports from Daily Bruin wire services.