Nation IN BRIEF : TEXAS : U.S. Faces Suit Over Census Count

The state of Texas sued the federal government, demanding more than $1 billion in federal aid state officials claim will be lost because of an alleged faulty census count that missed some 600,000 people statewide. The lawsuit names as defendants President Bush, Commerce Secretary Robert A. Mosbacher, whose department managed the census, and other federal departments spending money on programs in Texas. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Brownsville, seeks correction of the census, creation of an interest-bearing escrow account into which the federal government could deposit the disputed funds and a court ruling that use of the census for federal funding is discriminatory.