Bush administration rules against using adjusted census data

Associated Press WriterWASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration ruled against releasing statistically adjusted census to data to help distribute billions of dollars in federal aid across the country, government sources said.

Wednesday's decision means the federal government will use the raw head count available now to divvy up over $185 billion for Medicaid, foster care and other social service programs.

Bureau officials weighed whether adjusting population figures with statistical sampling would improve the already completed raw head count.

Most Democrats and civil rights groups said it would, by offering a better tally of minorities, the poor and children -- groups typically missed in higher numbers in a census.

Many Republican opponents claimed sampling would insert more errors into a 2000 census that had a lower national net undercount than 1990. They have also said that while adjustment may count people originally missed, it may not place them in the neighborhoods where they actually live.

The bureau's decision came with Commerce Secretary Don Evans in Russia for his first foreign trade mission.

The bureau faced a similar decision in March, recommending against adjusted data as the basis for redrawing congressional, state and local political districts.

There were too many discrepancies between adjusted data, the actual count and a third survey used to measure accuracy, and not enough time for further analysis, Acting Census Director William Barron said then.

Evans agreed. Commerce oversees the Census Bureau.

House Republicans praised the earlier decision, which angered Democrats and civil rights groups.

Groups like the U.S. Conference of Mayors also supported sampling, which could boost population figures for cities with larger minority populations, and likewise, federal dollars into those cities.

Specifically, Wednesday's decision determined whether adjusted data would be used for census information other than redistricting. The information includes 2000 census data yet to be released, as well as various other population estimates and surveys the Census Bureau conducts in between head counts.

The results from many of those estimates and surveys are used in federal funding formulas.