Speech #1060020605

Now when we get to the larger units. estimating starts to work better because we have a larger base to work off of and the people are not moving around. Now let me illustrate why that is the case. because estimating and the mathematical probabilities are based on very difficult things in this type of situation. The people who are most at risk of being undercounted. and I do not think there is any one of us here who sincerely have worked with the problem who do not believe that counting is very difficult in highrisk populations. which include illegal immigrants. it includes the homeless. it includes anybody who does not want to talk to somebody from the Federal Government. For example. in Fort Wayne we say we have 120 crack houses. but only 20 or 30 may be operating at a given time because it is really abandoned homes and the people are moving between them. Illegal immigrants may be clustered many in a house. or there may be a couple. or the place may not have them at a given time. Now what we have proposed to do. and the gentleman from Virginia and I. and the gentleman from Illinois and I worked on an amendment in committee to make sure that we signed off an amendment that even said groups of color with a marketing background. so we can get people in the community to try to find the people who are hard to count because they do not trust somebody like me walking into a neighborhood. Looks like potentially I am going to count them and they are not going to trust me.