14

will contribute to our goal of having the most accurate census possible. Traditional understanding of the Constitution and the legal direction provided by the Congress has meant that for every census since the first one in 1790, we have tried to count all residents of the country, regardless of their legal status. I will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Mr. SAWYER. Mr. Berteau?

STATEMENT OF DAVID J. BERTEAU, DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND SUPPORT

Mr. BERTEAU. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Ridge. I appreciate the opportunity to appear today to provide the Defense Department the chance to express our views on H.R. 2661 and our strong belief that our own personnel and dependents overseas should be included in every decennial census and in the apportionment counts reported to the Congress from this day forward. I have already provided you my written statement. I would like to just very briefly summarize it, if I may.

We are happy to note the agreement, that Mr. Kincannon noted, to include defense personnel and dependents overseas in the 1990 census counts, and we also appreciate the attention of this committee and the other interested Members in support of this agreement. As you know, in the past when the Congress has directed the Census Bureau to count overseas military for apportionment purposes, we have had to use information from DOD administrative files. For a variety of reasons, which I have elaborated on in my written statement, those administrative data do not provide the best basis for apportionment. Whether we use voting residence, tax residence, or what we call home of record, none of these meets a reasonable test of validity for apportionment purposes. That is a major reason why we are undertaking an enumeration of the DOD overseas population in 1990 concurrent with the decennial census in the 50 States. With the assistance of the Census Bureau, we will gather data on employees' last U.S. State of residence for at least six consecutive months, and information on this last residence most closely approximates the Census' concept of usual residence and will provide us with an excellent basis for apportionment purposes. As Mr. Kincannon mentioned, we have both the capability to do this in both a comprehensive way and timely way so that we can in fact meet the Census Bureau's deadlines.

In addition, our overseas enumeration will provide us with a great deal of information which can be merged with decennial census data gathered in the 50 States as well. These data will be of immeasurable value to us in assessing and planning our own programs. My written statement goes into some detail on this as well.

As noted, our 1990 overseas enumeration project entails an agreement with the Census Bureau to provide advice and technical expertise on data collection and form construction and on the management of form printing. We will field the census and will partially process the forms very quickly to obtain the apportionment counts to report to the Census Bureau. The Census Bureau will later perform the data weighting and the additional data processing, including merging the overseas data with the decennial census data, and will provide data products, and that will carry on until, in fact, some time in 1994. But the information will be collected on census day, and we fully expect to be able to meet their schedule for getting the numbers to the President by December 31, 1990.

24-982 0 - 90- 3

Mr. Chairman, let me close by thanking you again for the opportunity to appear here today to express our strong support for the inclusion of DOD overseas personnel.

Thank you.

[The statement of Mr. Berteau follows. The statement of Michael R. Darby, Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs also follows:]

STATEMENT

OF THE

DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE

FOR

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT & SUPPORT

DAVID J. BERTEAU

I would like to thank the Subcommittee for inviting the Department of Defense to provide its comments on the censusing for apportionment purposes of DoD's military and civilian employees and their dependents abroad not only in the 1990 Census of Population but in all decennial censuses to come.

The Department has previously testified, and strongly reasserts, that its personnel and their dependents overseas should be included in decennial census counts used for apportionment purposes. Duty locations overseas are under the legal purview of the United States. The employees and their families pay taxes and receive their pay from the U.S. Government. It is in the service of their country that they are sent overseas. They have thus not chosen to live overseas in the usual sense of the term "choice." They consider themselves part of the U.S. population and are treated as such.

In the past, when the Congress has directed the Census Bureau to count the overseas military for apportionment purposes, the Bureau has requested information from DoD administrative files. In complying with those requests, we have been forced to use information on what is termed "home of record." We now know that this particular data element in our personnel records has a high error rate. "Home of record" may also be a place where the person has not lived for many years and, in some cases, may be a place where the employee has never lived.

655

After investigating all data elements on personnel records which indicate some form of state affiliation, the DoD decided that none of them meets a reasonable test of validity for apportionment purposes. That is one major reason why the Department supports the undertaking of an enumeration of the DoD overseas population in 1990, concurrent with the decennial census in the 50 states. DOD, with the assistance of the Census Bureau, will gather data on employees' last U.S. state of residence for at least six consecutive months. Information on this last

residence closely approximates the Census' concept of "usual residence," the basis on which other U.S. citizens are counted. This information can be used, the Department feels, for apportionment purposes.

Of course, our overseas enumeration will also provide us with a great deal of additional information which can be merged with decennial data gathered in the 50 states as well. It will provide us with data on the actual number of spouses and dependents overseas and on overseas employees' household structures and family characteristics and on the citizenship status of household members. Information from it will be merged with information from the decennial census to permit additional and more accurate comparisons between military and civilian compensation, which we greatly need for our Congressionally mandated quadrennial reviews of military compensation. The expanded military sample will also permit DOD to make more