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91_HR0402
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1 HOUSE RESOLUTION
2 WHEREAS, The United States Congress is required by the
3 U.S. Constitution and by federal statute to produce a count
4 of the resident population every 10 years; and
5 WHEREAS, A complete and accurate count of all persons in
6 the United States of America is vital to the interests of the
7 people of the State of Illinois; and
8 WHEREAS, Census data is used to apportion congressional
9 seats and electoral college votes to each state, to carry out
10 congressional, state, and local redistricting, and to monitor
11 and enforce civil rights statutes, including the Voting
12 Rights Act of 1965 and employment, housing, lending,
13 education, and anti-discrimination laws; and
14 WHEREAS, The 1990 census count was the least accurate
15 census in five decades, undercounting 4.7 million individuals
16 in urban and rural areas; and
17 WHEREAS, The undercount in 1990 was not uniform across
18 the population, as Native Americans on reservations were
19 undercounted by 12.2%, Latinos by 5%, African-Americans by
20 4.4%, and Asian-Americans by 2.2%, each rate significantly
21 higher than the 0.7% undercount of non-Hispanic Whites; and
22 WHEREAS, Out of the net 4 million undercount in the 1990
23 census, more than half were children; and
24 WHEREAS, The United States government asked the National
25 Academy of Sciences to devise a method of conducting the 2000
26 census that would be more accurate, and the Academy found
27 that the census would be more accurate using modern
28 scientific methods; and
29 WHEREAS, The 1990 census was recognized as not living up
30 to American goals of fairness and equality due to the racial
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1 differential; and
2 WHEREAS, The Census Bureau has initiated plans to conduct
3 the 2000 federal decennial census using methods that will
4 produce a more accurate count of the nation's population; and
5 WHEREAS, The Supreme Court has rendered a decision that
6 the Census Act enacted by Congress prohibits the use of
7 sampling procedures to adjust the census for the purpose of
8 allocating congressional Representatives among the states,
9 but the Court's decision recognized that the Census Act
10 requires sampling procedures for other non-reapportionment
11 purposes; and
12 WHEREAS, Intrastate redistricting is one such
13 non-reapportionment purpose because it involves the drawing
14 of political boundaries within the State and does not involve
15 the reapportionment of Representatives among the various
16 states; and
17 WHEREAS, The traditional methods of conducting the census
18 will be less accurate than the scientific methods approved by
19 the National Academy of Sciences, regardless of the amount of
20 funds allocated by Congress to conduct a census using the
21 traditional methods; therefore, be it
22 RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
23 NINETY-FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
24 we respectfully memorialize and request that the federal
25 government take immediate and appropriate steps to ensure
26 that modern scientific methods are used in conducting the
27 census so that the most accurate population figures will be
28 provided to the states on or before April 1, 2000; and be it
29 further
30 RESOLVED, That these more accurate figures obtained
31 through modern scientific methods used in conducting the 2000
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1 census shall be used to conduct all post-2000 intrastate
2 redistricting within this State; and be it further
3 RESOLVED, That the Clerk of the Illinois House of
4 Representatives shall send a copy of this resolution to the
5 Director of the Bureau of the Census and to such others as
6 directed by the sponsors of this resolution.