In 2001, she gained national press attention when she and State Senator Margaret Carter (D-Portland) filed suit in U.S. District Court to force the Census Bureau to disclose its adjusted statistical count, which they suspected would reveal an undercount of as many as 43,000 Oregonians. They further estimated the cost to the State of Oregon in lost federal funding for social and educational programs over ten years at US$16 million. Judge James A. Redden ruled in favor of the disclosure, and the decision was upheld in 2002 on appeal by the Census Bureau.