Census 2000: let the games begin.

It seems like a simple task - go out and count the people in the United States. But the 2000 census is again mired in controversy, just like the 1990 census and the 1980 census and probably every census since 1789 when the framers adopted the constitutional requirement that the government take an "actual enumeration" every 10 years to determine the number of congressional seats to assign each state.

In fact, when Thomas Jefferson, the first director of the census, sent the figures to President Washington, he provided two sets of numbers. One set was the people that Jefferson had counted in each state, and the second set was his best guess as to the actual number of Americans.

The 2000 census is less than three years away, and there is a war brewing between the census bureau and Congress that may derail plans by the bureau to incorporate sampling techniques into the process.

The bureau maintains that sampling will reduce the cost of the census dramatically, as well as result in a more accurate final count. Sampling, a method endorsed by the National Academy of Sciences, may be the best way to correct the chronic under-count of minorities.

Republicans in Congress disagree and have pledged sufficient funding to conduct the best head...