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THE WHITE HOUSE

                     Office of the Press Secretary
                     (Shepherdstown, West Virginia)
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                    January 4, 2000

             PRESIDENT CLINTON NAMES CRUZ M. BUSTAMANTE AS 
             A MEMBER OF THE U.S. CENSUS MONITORING BOARD

The President today announced his intent to appoint Cruz M. Bustamante to serve as a member of the U.S. Census Monitoring Board.

Mr. Cruz M. Bustamante, of California, has been Lieutenant Governor of California since 1998. He became the first Latino Speaker of the Assembly and the first Latino elected to statewide office in California in more than 120 years. Mr. Bustamante is also a Regent of the University of California and a Trustee of the California State University. Last year, Mr. Bustamante proposed the creation of a California Complete Count Committee to ensure that the Golden State does not suffer an undercount as it did in the last census. His working group developed a funding proposal of 24.7 million in state funds for census outreach activities in California. Bustamante worked with California legislative leadership to finalize his proposal and place it in the fiscal year 1999-2000 state budget, an allocation signed into law by Governor Gray Davis.

Mr. Bustamante attended Fresno City College and then Fresno State University.

The Census Monitoring Board was created as a bipartisan board to observe and monitor all aspects of the preparation and implementation of the 2000 decennial census. The Census Monitoring Board is composed of eight members, who shall be appointed as follows: two individuals by the Majority Leader of the Senate; two individuals by the Speaker of the House of Representatives; and four individuals appointed by the President with the recommendations of the minority leaders of both houses. The Board transmits interim reports to Congress on its findings and recommendations for ensuring the most accurate count possible. The census begins April 1, 2000.

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